by Paul Stanway

Created on: December 05, 2007

In the industrial age, Abraham Maslow formulated a theory of motivation based upon a strict hierarchy. He said that the first level needs that motivate staff are the need for food and shelter. Then, the second level needs are for recognition and assimilation into social groups. Nowadays, at least in America, it is hoped that these first level needs are more or less met in the workplace. The difficulty, of course, resides in trying to satisfy the second series of criteria.

There are two ways in which you can keep staff motivated. One is through the use of dissatisfiers, and the other is through the use of motivators.

- Dissatisfiers

Dissatisfiers refer to the cases where management have reacted to a specific problem in the workplace. They are often reactive and used merely to prevent mass upheaval or unionism in the company. These include pay, physical work conditions, holiday pay, company policy and supervisory behaviour. While these have a short term effect, they do not act upon motivation of employees in the long term.

- Motivators

Motivators are closely related to the job that the actual person does, and are usually radically different from the general factors described above. They are usually the result of feedback between staff and management. As such, it is always the first step with an employer to make sure that employees needs are listened to. Motivational factors can be split into 4 seperate categories:

1) Growth

Growth refers to the process of getting better at a job and finding new ways to improve at it. A job is considerably more likely to be motivating if it allows the employee the opportunity to learn more about the job. It is unlikely that employees will become de-motivated if they believe that their job is mentally enriching.

2) Achievement

Achievement derives from the satisfaction of short term or long term goals. This is an interesting motivator, because it stresses that the greater the challenge, the greater the chances that the employee will be motivated to achieve it. As such, it may be important for the employer to avoid giving employees "easy" jobs where they are not treated as human. Also, this is very much dependent on individual staff feedback, because people feel a sense of achievement in very different ways.

3) Responsibility

Responsibility is concerned about the attitude the employee has towards the job. If the employee is simply taking orders from management, and does not have any personal stake in the business, then it is extremely unlikely that he will feel any sense of responsibility for the job. It is important for management to let go and allow employees the opportunity to take the lead on certain issues.

4) Recognition

Recognition for the job is not necessarily a system of perks given to employees for being more productive. More, it is a sense that the job they are doing is vital to the success of the company, and that management appreciate this in more subtle ways. While it is intertwined with other motivators, the act of recnognising the specific work done by employees on an individual basis is extremely important in the development of motivated employees.

In order for employees to be motivated and happy, the employer has to look way beyond generic methods (or dissatisfiers) when treating their staff. A dialogue has to be set up on an individual basis between staff and management. The four motivators: growth, achievement, responsibility and recognition, have to be employed in every level of the organisation to ensure that staff remain motivated and driven to succeed.

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