Personal autonomy _____ _____ Supportive and helpful boss _____ _____ Clear goals and objectives _____ _____ Equitable rewards for good work performance _____ _____ Healthy corporate culture and climate _____ _____ Part 2 Did you have any problems filling in the second column? What are the implications of this for your ability to lead and motivate other people at work now and in the future? What motivational ‘tools’ are missing from this list which leaders and managers might make use of? Is it possible to ‘motivate’ another person? If so, how do you do this? ◆ This exercise highlights three important – but often overlooked – facts about motivation. First, while we should all have a good understand- ing of our personal motivations and motivators, we may often second- guess what motivates other people at work. This is the natural consequence of the selective perceptions we have of the world and of other people (as described in Chapters 1 and 3). In practice, this means that we may falsely assume that what motivates us will also motivate other people. At best, this means that we will only ever be successful in motivating some of our followers, those whose motivational priorities broadly correspond with our own. Second, there are at least 30 differ- ent ways in which employee motivation and performance can be enhanced at work. How many of these were you able to identify in Exercise 4.1? Third, unless we consciously think about how we moti- vate other people, it can be very difficult to articulate how we actually do this. If we cannot do this, we will not be able to enhance our ability to motivate others in the future. EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, EMPOWERMENT AND PERFORMANCE 163 The following sections will review a number of theories of motivation and empowerment, divided into two broad categories – content and process. However, throughout this chapter, the focus will be on the practical applications of each of these for leaders and managers. An understanding of these theories can be helpful because each one high- lights a number of strategies for enhancing employee motivation and performance (or, to be more accurate, ways of not demotivating people). It is also important to emphasize that each one of these is context- specific. This means that not all of the motivational principles outlined in this chapter may be relevant to you or your work situation and, as a practising leader/manager, you will already be aware of most of these motivational techniques. But, just as an architect or engineer can design better and more complex structures by having a larger set of conceptual and practical tools, so leader/managers should be in a better position to solve motivation and performance problems amongst their employees, simply by becoming more familiar with these theories and their applications. Content theories Content theories provide some insights into people’s needs and help us to understand what people will (and will not) value as work motiva- tors. There are four content theories (Robbins et al., 2001: 195–206). The first, and best known, of these is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow was the first researcher to suggest that motivation was the product of human beings striving to satisfy a sequence of needs. These are, in ascending order: • physiological needs (food, water, shelter, sex and rest), •safety needs (security and protection from threats from the environ- ment), • social needs (love, affection, friendship and social interaction with other people), • esteem needs (attention, recognition, self-respect, achievement, autonomy and status), • self-actualization (psychological growth, self-expression, self-fulfil- ment and the full realization of individual potential). Maslow argued that all humans are intrinsically motivated by a desire to satisfy these needs, from the lowest to the highest. As each need is satisfied it becomes less important and the next highest need increases in importance. 164 MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE In a similar vein, Alderfer proposed a three-part hierarchy of needs in his ERG theory: Existence (broadly corresponding to levels 1 and 2 in Maslow), Relatedness (broadly corresponding to levels 3 and 4 in Maslow), and Growth (broadly corresponding to level 5 in Maslow). Alderfer argued that, once a lower-order need is satisfied, there is an increased desire to satisfy a higher-order need and this will increase the longer this need remains unsatisfied. He also argued that, if higher- order needs are not satisfied, lower-level needs may become more desirable, and more than one need may be operating at the same time. The third content theory, Herzberg’s Two Factor theory, proposed an even simpler dichotomy between ‘motivators’ and ‘hygiene’ factors. He suggested that, if hygiene factors such as appropriate pay, good working conditions, good supervision, job security and good relation- ships with co-workers were not in place, this would lead to dissatisfac- tion (and poorer work performance over time). On the other hand, motivators such as achievement, responsibility, recognition, advance- ment and increased competence are all factors that will enhance moti- vation, and produce better work performance over time (Herzberg, 1995). In common with other aspects of leadership and people manage- ment already reviewed in this book, these ideas are not new. Charles Handy describes how ancient African tribes have had cultures that embraced ‘lesser hungers’ and ‘greater hungers’ for centuries, broadly corresponding to lower- and higher-order needs categories in Maslow’s, Alderfer’s and Herzberg’s theories (Handy, 1996: 200). The fourth content theory is McClelland’s Achievement Motivation theory (McClelland, 1975, 1961; McClelland and Burnham, 1995). This theory focuses on three human needs: (a) need for achievement: a learnt need to excel and succeed in life, (b) need for power: a learnt need to lead and change the behaviours and beliefs of others, (c) need for affil- iation: a learnt need for social interaction with others. McClelland’s pioneering work revealed that intrinsic motivation is far more powerful in promoting performance when compared to extrinsic motivation. An employee can be said to be intrinsically motivated if he or she participates enthusiastically in work activities without receiving any apparent extrinsic rewards. Extrinsic motivation refers to behav- iour that is driven by external rewards and stimuli (Deci, 1975). A comparison of the four needs theories is illustrated in Figure 4.1 (p. 166). EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, EMPOWERMENT AND PERFORMANCE 165 The practical applications of content theories It was noted earlier that the empirical support for these theories is mixed. This means that their practical applicability in real-life settings has limitations. For example, all four theories assume that individuals have broadly similar needs and desires for power and achievement throughout their working lives. However, changing demographic, cultural and economic trends mean that present-day employees are likely to have a greater variety of needs, compared to the time when these theories were first developed (in each case, more than 30 years ago). Because of their focus on individual needs and motivations, they also overlook contingent factors that can influence motivation and performance, such as organizational cultures, reward systems and leadership styles. They are also culturally specific, with the importance attached to the needs they identified varying between different cultures. Last, no one has yet answered the simple but important ques- tion, ‘Is a satisfied employee more motivated than a dissatisfied employee?’ – an issue we will return to shortly. Nevertheless, the value of content theories is that they draw attention to the importance of psychological growth and learning as basic conditions for sustained and lasting job performance. They also emphasize the importance of educating and developing staff, in order to improve motivation and performance. This perspective had a major influence on the Job Redesign movement of the 1970s and Quality of Working Life initia- tives in the 1980s. There are four practical implications of content theories for leaders and managers. If they really want to get the best out of their people, then they should understand the following: • how to create well-designed work environments that provide people with the opportunities to realize their needs through their 166 MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE Figure 4.1 Content theories of motivation compared work and by contributing to the task performance of their team, department and organization; • how individual differences will shape the personal needs of their staff, and how these change and evolve over time; • how these needs shape what different employees expect from their leaders, supervisors, colleagues and subordinates; • how almost all employees prefer some power and control over their work, and welcome opportunities for personal development and growth at work. Maslow’s, Alderfer’s and Herzberg’s theories all suggest that poor or badly designed working environments can have a demotivational effect on employees. Remarkably, recent research has shown that as many as 25 per cent of employees continue to be unhappy with their physical work environments (Carlopio et al., 2001: 315). A survey conducted by Graham Kirkwood, director of Melbourne Resource Architecture with the Melbourne Business School, measured how the physical environ- ment can have an impact on business effectiveness. He observed that, ‘The thing I always find is that everyone is unhappy with their current work environment, no matter how good it is’ (cited by Kaplan, 1999). Complaints range from dissatisfaction with air quality and temperature to headaches associated with poor lighting and eye strain caused by the overuse of PCs. Others voice dissatisfaction with overcrowding and a lack of privacy in open plan offices. Collectively these factors can result in lower employee morale and work performance. The Australian Confederation of Trades Unions, who claimed that physical conditions are the second biggest cause of industrial disputes in Australia, backed the findings of this survey (Kaplan, 1999). In recent years there has been growing interest in creating working environments that can enhance employee well-being and motivation. The design of ergonomically sound offices and buildings is now a multibillion dollar business. The word ‘ergonomic’ is derived from two Greek words, ergo (work) and nomos (laws of). The discipline of ergonomics is concerned with understanding the interactions between people and their working environments, with the aim of improving employee well-being and efficiency. In many industrialized countries there are indications of a revolution in office and building design in order to create environments that encourage brainstorming and regular staff interaction. As the Australian World Square architect, Greg Crone, has observed, ‘the physical environment is one of the most powerful ways to communicate change. When you change people’s physical space it has a big impact on their sense of self-worth, the way they communicate with each other, the way they share information and how the workplace affects their performance’ (cited by Elder, 2001). EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, EMPOWERMENT AND PERFORMANCE 167 An example of the use of ergonomics to increase well-being is the ancient Chinese practice of Feng Shui (pronounced ‘fung shway’). This is based on the theory that one’s chances of success can be enhanced by properly orienting physical surroundings through the use of a bagua (a nine square map). This is used to orient the physical layout of work and home spaces, including in these environments the five elements of water, wood, fire, earth and metal. Other elements include plenty of light and the use of ‘positive energy lines’ (Singh, 2000). The idea of Feng Shui, traditionally the province of Asian Americans, flaky Hollywood actors or New Age junkies, has gained widespread acceptance in western busi- ness circles. Amongst the individuals and organizations that use it are the actor Rob Lowe, property millionaire Donald Trump, Oakley, Coty Beauty, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank in the USA, and the ANZ Bank and the Western Mining Corporation in Australia. The driving belief behind these, and other ergonomic initiatives is to create environments that make people want to come into work. These environments include controlled air temperature and lighting, windows that open and breakout areas with couches and games. Open plan offices are encouraged because this promotes sharing of knowl- edge and ideas and teamwork is enhanced. However, some private space is still encouraged, with user-friendly technologies, orthopaedi- cally designed chairs and well-planned desk layouts. An example of this is the offices of TXU in Melbourne, designed by Graham Kirkwood, where public meeting spaces are given greater precedence over private offices, desks are accessorized and employees are free to customize their own spaces. Employees have full control over their office environment and, as a consequence, this is constantly evolving: it is not a static place (Kaplan, 1999). In a few companies, even the humble and much derided cubicle is now evolving into ‘ovacles’ orga- nized around a central meeting place. These ovacles are equipped with ceiling canopies, personalized colour schemes, computer-centric layouts, boundary screens for privacy, rolling storage and mobile PC facilities, so staff can set up an ‘office’ anywhere if they want to inter- act with a group of colleagues (Goldstein, 2000). Another example of a company that takes ergonomics seriously is one we looked at briefly in Chapter 1, Google, the most successful of all the web search-engine companies during 2000–2004. At ‘The Googleplex’, more than 230 employees enjoy a working environment that includes A ping-pong table, a pool table, a video arcade game, an ice-cream cooler (free), a snack bar, a restaurant and a free gym. Locker rooms have showers, saunas and washing machines. Hallways are cluttered with plastic balls and Google-decorated scooters and lava lamps. Notice boards feature pictures of Gerry Garcia. The design of the Googleplex is open and colourful. A 168 MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE sound system plays Carlos Santana. Google also has an on-site gourmet chef, doctor, dentist and masseuse, free ice-cream and a weekly hockey game in the car park. A typical daily menu features Portuguese fish stew, mushroom risotto cakes and grilled Florida sea bass with melted fennel and butter sauce. A mobile library van pulls up once a week. All clothing with Google logos is free to employees. The company’s third employee and now Director of Technology, Craig Silverstein, likes to bake fresh bread for his staff. This is a company that regards the well-being of its young employees as being the single most important competitive advantage that it has. (Abridged from Boulware, 2002) How do the ergonomics of your company/organization compare to this? Theories about higher-level motivational needs also have some practi- cal applications. The first concerns the design and scope of jobs. Job design initiatives are concerned with aligning job demands and requirements with employees’ skills, aptitudes and abilities. McClelland’s research on individuals with high needs for achievement indicates that their jobs should encompass a high degree of personal autonomy, regular feedback and an intermediate degree of risk in achieving their work goals. It also indicates that one way that organi- zations can increase overall motivation levels amongst their employees is to identify and hire recruits who already have high levels of intrinsic motivation and a strong need for achievement. McClelland’s work on high-achievers is particularly relevant to the motivation of full-time professionals. His work indicates that motivating such groups is about providing high-achievers with new challenges, alongside autonomy to choose their work tasks and the methods for completing these. Professionals constantly need new challenges and problems to solve. Self-growth is also important, so they should be allowed opportunities for education and self-development (for example, by doing a part-time MBA, or attending workshops and conferences). Their rewards should be based on some combination of a competitive basic wage and perfor- mance and/or skills-based pay (McClelland, 1975, 1961; McClelland and Burnham, 1995). In an environment where there are high levels of self-motivation, an empowered style of leadership is appropriate. In an environment where there are high levels of extrinsic motivation, a command-and-control style of management is usually required. Content theory research has two other practical implications. The first is that jobs should be made as challenging as possible, and people should be continually encouraged to improve their skills bases, educa- tion and knowledge levels. The second is related to the notion of empowerment. The most enjoyable and rewarding jobs are those where employees have as much freedom as possible to carry out their work without direct command-and-control supervision, providing they have adequate skills and knowledge to cope with this. In general, EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, EMPOWERMENT AND PERFORMANCE 169 all leaders and managers should allow their staff as much freedom as possible to carry out their jobs, within clearly agreed and understood guidelines and in alignment with team, departmental and organiza- tional objectives (O’Reilly and Pfeffer, 2000: 16–19). This means that empowerment requires something more than simply delegating tasks to others. To empower employees successfully, we have to give our power away to them. This might sound both daunting and counter- intuitive, but all we have to do is unleash the motivation, talent and creativity that is already there by giving our people more responsibil- ity for making decisions about the work they do and the tasks that they are engaged in. We will return to this idea later in the section on ‘attri- butions’ and in Chapter 7. The best executive is the one who has the sense to pick the best people to do what he wants and self restraint enough to keep from meddling with them whilst they do it. (US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936) The ‘relationship’ between satisfaction and motivation Our objective is simple. It is to turn everyone on our payrolls into raging, inexorable, thunder-lizard evangelists! (Guy Kawasaki, Apple Computers, 1992) Success is not an end in itself. It is merely an encouragement to go further. (Sir Alex Ferguson, Manager of Manchester United FC, after winning the European Cup in May 1999) One of the most confusing elements of needs theories of motivation concerns the purported relationship between satisfaction, motivation and performance. Maslow, Alderfer and Herzberg all suggested that employees who are able to satisfy their needs at work would be more motivated and productive than dissatisfied employees. This idea also appeals to common-sense assumptions about employee motivation. Surely a satisfied employee will also be a more motivated and produc- tive worker? This is a widespread assumption, but we must be extremely cautious about assuming such a simple relationship. Research evidence shows that there is often only a weak causal rela- tionship between these three factors (see, for example, the thorough review of this literature in Hosie, 2003). This means that the remaining variances in well-being and productivity must be caused by factors other than ‘satisfaction’ – in itself a notoriously difficult variable to measure and quantify. In reality, there are just two things we can assert with absolute confidence about individuals with high levels of job satis- faction. First, they are more likely to remain with an organization and not seek employment elsewhere. Second, high levels of job satisfaction 170 MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE do not always lead to higher levels of motivation or enhanced job performance, because of self-satisfaction and resistance to change and learning. How this process works is illustrated in Table 4.1. Here’s an example to illustrate how this works in practice. Imagine that you want some chocolate. You then have an unfulfilled need and you are motivated to satisfy that need. You go and buy a large bar of chocolate, eat it and are then satisfied – for a while. Eating more chocolate imme- diately would not make you more satisfied. However, at some point in the future, say the next day (or, for an extreme chocoholic, the same day) you once again feel the need for more chocolate, become dissatisfied and motivated to buy some more chocolate, and so the process begins again. The word ‘satisfaction’ is defined as ‘the act of satisfying or fulfilling one’s needs or desires’ (OED website, 2002). Consequently, satisfaction can only ever be a temporary phase, leading to short-lived periods of feeling good, being appreciated and fulfilled or, in the example above, replete with chocolate. So someone who was perpetually satisfied with everything cannot be a fully functioning human being, because they would have no intrinsic motivation to achieve anything. Hence one of the real secrets of motivating staff effectively is to oper- ate with two ‘pedals’ simultaneously. One is labelled ‘satisfaction’ and the other is labelled ‘dissatisfaction’. The aim is to satisfy people temporarily, by providing appropriate rewards and positive feedback for a job well done, for achieving work goals or for coming up with innovative new ideas or solutions to problems at work. However, for much of the time, we must also engender a feeling of mild dissatisfac- tion, by always keeping people a little ‘hungry’, wanting more, keep- ing them on their toes and striving to pull them towards higher levels of achievement. This also means that feelings of mild anxiety can be a EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, EMPOWERMENT AND PERFORMANCE 171 Table 4.1 The satisfaction–dissatisfaction process 1. Identify needs as a result of being dissatisfied with current situa- tion 2. Identify ways of satisfying those needs 3. Select goal-directed behaviours 4. Perform tasks to achieve these goals 5. Receive feedback (+ or –) and feel temporarily satisfied (+) or dissatisfied (–) 6. If dissatisfied, re-evaluate needs and objectives and become remoti- vated 7. If satisfied, identify new unfulfilled needs and objectives, become dissatisfied and remotivated good thing, because people who are feeling anxious about their perfor- mance will have a greater hunger to be successful, achieve work goals and reach for higher levels of performance, when compared with people who are ‘satisfied’ or, even worse, ‘self-satisfied’. This hunger for achievement is captured in an anecdote told by Julie Bick, a former employee of Microsoft: ‘A Microsoft manager returned from a trade show and joyously sent out an email to his team, announc- ing their product had won nine out of ten possible awards. Within a day he had received forty emails back asking which award they had not won and why’ (Corporate Research Foundation, 2003: 149). In many of the most successful companies of the 20th and early 21st centuries, the idea of ‘job satisfaction’ was, and continues to be, frowned upon. For example, Collins and Porras (1996) refer to ‘the fire that burns within’ amongst employees in these very successful compa- nies, demonstrating that jobs in these organizations were (and continue to be) designed to be challenging and demanding, not easy or comfort- able. This idea is neatly encapsulated in a parable they recount in this book, and is one we will return to in Chapters 8–10. The parable of the black belt Picture a martial artist kneeling before the master sensei in a ceremony to receive a hard-earned black belt. After years of relentless training, the student has finally reached a pinnacle of achievement in the disci- pline. ‘Before granting the belt, you must pass one more test,’ says the sensei. ‘I am ready,’ responds the student, expecting perhaps one final round of sparring. ‘You must answer the essential question: what is the true meaning of the black belt?’ ‘The end of my journey,’ says the student, ‘a well-deserved reward for all my hard work.’ The sensei waits for more. Clearly, he is not satisfied. Finally, the sensei speaks. ‘You are not ready for the black belt. Return in one year.’ A year later, the student kneels again in front of the sensei. ‘What is the true meaning of the black belt?’ asks the sensei. ‘A symbol of distinction and the highest achievement in our art,’ says the student. The sensei says nothing for many minutes, waiting. Clearly, he is not satis- fied. Finally, he speaks: ‘You are still not ready for the black belt. Return in one year.’ A year later, the student kneels once again in front of the sensei. And again the sensei asks, ‘What is the true meaning of the black belt?’ 172 MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE [...]... Good to Great, 2001) In this chapter it has been suggested that there are no magic motivational triggers that leaders or managers can activate in order to make people become instantly more motivated, or want to learn more or work smarter and better All organizations can do is to create cultures and working environments that can enable individuals who are already intrinsically motivated to perform to. .. For example, what can an employer do when an individual has learnt all the skills that are required in a job or becomes overqualified for a particular position? In short, while money is important, and all organizations need to pay competitive wage rates to attract and retain highquality staff, its importance as a motivator should not be overstated In reality, it can actually be counterproductive to become... smarter, faster and more creatively, rather than harder and longer.5 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, EMPOWERMENT AND PERFORMANCE 195 8 Periodically remind people why they, and the work they do, are important and the larger goals towards which their efforts are directed Communicate effectively and keep people informed and up -to- date about what is going on in your organization Jointly agree process, performance and. .. motivation and empowerment may initially appear to be complex, the basic strategies for optimizing these in employees are straightforward and, as with many other facets of leadership and people management, have been understood for centuries All that leaders and managers need to do is to include the elements that have been described in this chapter in a 198 MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE contingent (context-specific) and. .. goals are set, the match between employee expectations and work outcomes, opportunities for advancement at work, learning and development, equity in rewards and the way praise, feedback and financial rewards are provided Motivation and performance are also shaped by other contingent factors such as group dynamics, communication, leadership styles and organizational cultures While the issues of motivation... tailored financial and non-financial incentives to enhance staff motivation, performance, productivity and organizational loyalty To reiterate a point made earlier, if your organization has a reputation for looking after its staff, new recruits will batter down the doors to join you Each of the motivational and empowerment techniques we have reviewed in this chapter works, and the main reason for using... motivator, particularly amongst blue-collar and contract employees If this were true, the best way to increase employee motivation and performance would be to increase their pay on a regular basis; by paying someone twice as much, their motivation levels should double If only it was this straightforward Paradoxically, while people on average and low incomes are routinely exhorted to show ’restraint’ and. .. people to achieve more for themselves and your organization 4 While there continue to be disagreements about the efficacy of pay-by-results remuneration schemes, there is universal agreement that it is essential to pay people fairly and competitively So try to provide your people with a competitive and fair wage, with the opportunity to earn more by a known and equitable formula for above-average performance. .. practices and culture It can be very time consuming and difficult to change anyone’s behaviour or attitudes after they have been recruited 2 Create work environments that enable employees to grow and explore, to solve problems, to make discoveries, to innovate and to reach ever-higher personal goals and performance targets 3 Inject some fun into work, and provide an eclectic range of individually tailored... mentoring programmes and, last, 12.6 per cent were using pay increases as their main way of retaining their best talent (Karvelas, 200 2a) Karvelas also observed that, while financial rewards were important in providing incentives to encourage talented staff to stay with companies, employers had recognized that remuneration was not a panacea Employees were looking for a broader range of incentives to . ice-cream cooler (free), a snack bar, a restaurant and a free gym. Locker rooms have showers, saunas and washing machines. Hallways are cluttered with plastic balls and Google-decorated scooters and. identify- ing appropriate goals that can stretch and motivate them, monitoring their progress towards these and providing appropriate resources and feedback. Carefully setting performance goals can sustain. leaders and managers needed to move away from a ubiquitous command -and- control style of management to what was then a ‘new’ empowered style of leadership. At the height of his popu- larity as a corporate