Motivate your Staff

Motivation is another essential element to succeed and sustain standards within every organisation

If you are motivated you will enjoy what you are doing and will find considerable satisfaction in succeeding, your success will then motivate you to further effort. There is emphasis on achieving a steady output in line with target values. Where these deviated from target, action was taken to bring them back on line as discussed in management in regards to the control loop. With self-control you can set higher targets in response to success. This increases both achievement and satisfaction. There is a "higher-order" loop within which the basic loop is nested.

The expectancy model of Motivation

Conceptual models aid the potential perception of conditions affecting motivation, including the expectancy theory of motivation (Vroom, 1964; Lawler and Porter, 1967). It can be viewed as a development of a "control of effort" loop. This, as in the control loop theory assists the identification of components essential within motivation and therefore effort is to be present. Linking the importance between performance and outcomes is paramount in this model. The decision to exert effort is the manifestation of motivation - the unmotivated will not bother and the motivated will exert considerable effort, it is the remainder of the loop which determines the rest.

The links between each phase are subjective; the connection that a person believes to exist rather than any other objective reality, which affects motivation. The decision to exert effort depends on a belief that the effort will result in performance and that performance will be rewarded.

If you believe you will fail against all efforts, you will not exert effort required to succeed. Objectives must be attainable in order for motivation to occur; effort will not be "wasted" in trying to achieve them. Similarly if you feel no matter how well performance is carried out, no recognition or even punishment may result, effort towards this performance is wasted.

Important questions to ask in regards to motivation:

·         Is motivation low because people do not believe that they can achieve the required performance?

·         If so, why?

·         Do they feel the rewards are not dependant on performance?

·         If not, are the intended rewards of little or no value to the person rewarded?

·         Rewards can be disincentives on occasion

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943)

This model helps us understand what is likely to be rewarding and hence motivating. The first principle is linking satisfaction with a need and motivation stemming from this satisfactory need. Abraham Maslow's simplicity in logically categorising needs are classified as:

·         Self-actualisation needs

·         Esteem needs

·         Love needs

·         Safety needs

·         Physiological needs

Furthermore Maslow's needs categorised as above are in hierarchy. Needs lower on the list are stronger than those higher up and until they are met, any higher needs will not operate. Based on evolutionary sense e.g. food first priority and reproductive success linked with status.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Expectancy theory suggests two categories of outcome, intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic outcomes are those separate from the performance itself e.g. pay, praise, and promotion. Intrinsic outcomes derive from the performance itself and internal sense of achievement.

How then can you arrange for work to offer possibly intrinsic motivations? You must ensure a strong perceived effort performance link is in place, not only having clear objectives and believed to be achievable whilst meeting other conditions. The resources you need, i.e. time, tools, information must all be available and you must have the necessary skills.

The second step is to ensure necessary conditions exist for performance to lead to an intrinsic outcome. One set of conditions, (Hackman and Lawler, 1971) is that jobs should feature four core dimensions if they are to scope for satisfying those motivated by higher needs. These dimensions are:

·         Variety - should come from different doing different parts of the whole task. If variety is included for varieties sake i.e. lots of unrelated things this can limit usefulness in increasing motivation.

·         Task identity - this is the extent to which tasks have a clear beginning, middle and end. Variety increases task identity as does breaking things down into sub-tasks with their own targets as in the hierarchy of objectives. Thinking of sub-tasks in context of the wider enterprise can increase significance.

·         Feedback on performance- Going over work critically gives feedback as well as receiving external constructive criticism. Ensure "decent interval" before revisiting your own work for clear and objective criticism. Prior planning in the form of a checklist of sub-objectives (visual feedback on progress), reporting to supervisors and setting tests to check how well you have learnt something you are revising all provides adequate feedback.

Subsequently, suggested social value or significance to the job also holds importance although harder to exploit. At work, employees may struggle to see their contributions as part of the wider enterprise, therefore making this clear to them can considerably increase motivation. Feeling as your set tasks require skills only you possess contributes to the sense of value. If, on a group task all participators fully understand their involvement towards the overall purpose breaking down individual's tasks and their progress towards this will help everyone's motivation.

Time Management

Time management sits on simple and specific case of general principles of management as previously discussed and reinforce much of the above whilst developing an eminently transferable skill.

Basic time-management principles

·         You should direct your effort appropriately, that is towards the things that are most important

·         You should direct your effort efficiently, that is, maximise what is achieved by the expenditure of time and energy

·         You should reduce time wastage.

To achieve this you need to manage your time along with the basic principles identified by Fayol: plan your use of time and be clear about your objectives, organise other resources needed, motivate yourself to exert the necessary energy and control the progress to ensure that you are not slipping back into old and bad habits.

Directing your effort appropriately

The main hazards in this area tend to be:

·         Poor prioritisation - working on something more interesting and neglecting something more boring and difficult. The       neglected work may be a particular assignment, or even a whole course which you find tedious. It may be displaced by reading something fascinating but not really necessary.

·         Aiming for unnecessary perfection - this may apply to presentations or projects, e.g. lead you to endlessly polish a piece of work, rather than handing it in and getting on with the next task.

·         Failing to clarify requirements - for an assignment putting effort into something that is not what your boss or manager wanted.

·         Failing to apportion time fairly - between different assignments set within the same time frame, working exclusively on the first one tackled for much of the time available for all of them - this is very close to the first problem.

All of these hazards occur in the workplace too, while you may encounter than in group projects you are more likely to encounter at work.

Achieving better direction

To avoid misdirection, planning is key. Review your objectives daily and think how to make future progress - make this a habit, habits save energy!

Over commitment can lead to realisation of not achieving set targets, worry will take over and you will feel unmotivated to do anything at all as you know you cannot complete everything. Reflect on this in order to prevent from happening again, may need to practise assertiveness to not agree to unrealistic tasks.

Perfectionists can suffer as modern definitions of quality refer to fitness for purpose, not to absolute perfection. When planning to tackle objectives, think how detailed they need to be in order to meet learning requirements.

If you spend time on unnecessary things, you must address utilisation of this time towards course requirements. Get into the habit of addressing the necessity of work to avoid such misdirected efforts in employment.

Sources of ineffectiveness

Once your effort is directed appropriately, consider how to make it more effective in terms of achievement. Procrastination causes wasted effort on worry as does lack of organisation on searching for appropriate materials.

Individuals thrive at certain times of day and ensure this time is spent productively and on your most difficult work. Similarly, tiredness poses time of waste and lacks efficiency, is better to take an hour out to recuperate.

Another common problem is "flitting" i.e. not spending long enough on one single task and tending to switch between other tasks or non-tasks. Commencing tasks take start up energy and therefore flitting uses a lot more energy having to restart again and again.

For more effective use of time avoid:

·         Procrastination

·         "Flitting"

·         Displacement activity

·         Perfection

·         Poor procrastination

Making effort more effective

Organisation is inevitably the first requirement, keep your surroundings clean and clear and work a system to keep particular things needed for particular tasks together in one place. Electronic work must all be printed for backup copies.

Avoid procrastination which produces unnecessary negative energy. Schedule time, Maslow, we need exercise, sleep, food, time with friends, time pursuing non-work interests, include time off and enjoy it.

Some tasks are so large the sheer magnitude causes procrastination; to overcome magnitude issues try "divide and conquer" which is a variant of the "hierarchy of objectives". Break down the task into sub-tasks each with own objectives to make more manageable. Completion of each sub-task provides own rewarding satisfaction and therefore motivating onto the next stage. If this is not possible set a small amount of work to do each day as during the time you are not working, resistance to starting actually increases, making it more and more difficult. Even a small amount of work each day or two will prevent the build up of this negative anticipation.

Ensure planning includes sensible deadlines for each task arranged in a way that all deadlines can be met. Objectives need to be T - time defined and the use of planning charts to aid motivation.