BUCHAREST UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

Faculty of Business Administration

EmployEEs motivation
- Lecture 5 -
Motivation is like a high voltage cable lying at your feet.
Use it the wrong way, and youll get a serious shock.
But apply motivation the right way, [] plug the cable in,
as it were, and it will serve you well in many powerful
ways throughout your career.
Brent Filson, 2005
The word motivation itself may have several
meanings:
- capacity to drive yourself /others to achieve a positive thing,
- creation of a vision and the desire to accomplish it,
- cultivating self-confidence,
- moving to action,
- observing results and overcoming obstacles, etc.
 Which is the most important thing in the world?
Money, Power?
Food, Shelter, Security?
Love?
Health?
 "Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want
them to do because they want to do it."
(Dwight D.)

Motivation is the art of getting people to do

what they want to do
because they want to do it helping
to see connection between effort & reward
Motivation is the art of getting people to do
what you want them to do
because they want to do it explaining & persuading
Motivation is the art of getting people to do
what you want them to do
even if they dont want to do it blackmailing / forcing
 What is more important?

having a strong having the capacity

motivation to motivate,
or
(whether it is about
motivating
ourselves or the
ones next to us)
Vision
Motivating yourself

Impetus
 Vision Emotion using
2nd pillar E.Q.
Impetus Motivation is driven by emotion

3rd pillar

Motion
Motivation comes 1st pillar
from within
Motivation means
psysical action
Motivation is not what
we do to others. It
is what others do to
themselves. showing the connection
between
(Filson, B., 2005)
effort and rewards
 Motivation refers to the initiation, direction,
intensity, and persistence of human behavior.

direction
Initiating an
action
intensity

persistance
 On the long run, people all want to be successful in their
personal and professional life.

The key to success

does not rely on the prestige of the school one
attended
Or
on the number of diplomas one has acquired.

What really matters is the ability to motivate ones

self and the others to achieve results.
 Motivation - difficult to be determined
varies from one moment to the other
varies from one individual to another.

! it is impossible to design a set of universally valid

motivational systems that could be applied to each and
every individual and organization

- in the 1920s - all people desired to feel motivated was

an attractive salary package
- nowadays motivating people is a very challenging and
time-consuming action
 Organizational X Cultural factors X Personal factors
factors
Employees motivation

Motivation is a complex, long-run activity.

P.F.
P.F.
P.F.
P.F.

Understanding
the complexity of the society
Successful
motivation
Considering system
each person individually
The oldest technique = Carrot and Stick method (from the donkeys stubbornness)
- even before Henry Fords line manufacturing (1896)
Behaviorist school = answer to the Sigmund Freuds theory of inconscient
Ivan Pavlov & Burrhus Frederick Skinner
- people look for reward and avoid punishment
- it will be encouraged the rewarded behavior
- economical motivational
Frederick Winslow Taylor Scientific Management
= measurements, forecasting and control
= perfect match between job description candidate profile
It created a misconception money always motivates a person

Hawthorne experiment (1920-1930)

social motivation
= every kind of change of the working conditions will give some
improvement of the performance (on the short-run).
- Douglas McGregors theories X & Y
A new era of partnership between
managers and psychologists - Abraham Maslows theory of needs
- Frederick Herzberghygiene & motivational
factors
Extrinsic motivation = a certain job is performed with the
purpose of obtaining external rewards.

Intrinsic motivation = a certain job is performed for its

own sake, and not with the purpose of obtaining external
rewards.
- Intrinsic motivation tasks that intrinsically motivate
- (= Herzbergs motivators)
 The behaviourist approach
(reinforcement theory or the operant
conditioning behaviour)
E.I. Pavlov (the Russian Nobel-Prize winner)
Pleasant Unpleasant
- behavior can be taught
- studies on dogs
Received

Positive - developed the concept of classical

motivation Punishment conditioning of behavior.
(reinforcement)
John Watson took the experiment further on
humans.
Taken away

Negative
Punishment motivation Frederic Skinner
(reinforcement) - encouraging appropriate behaviour by
controlling the consequences of that
behaviour
According to the effect, behaviour that is
rewarded tends to be repeated, while that
which is punished tends to be eliminated.
 McGregor X &Y theories

- these are possible assumptions

Theory X:
people are basically lazy and not motivated to work and
they have a natural tendency to avoid responsibility

Theory Y:
people do not inherently dislike work and will commit
themselves willingly to work that they care about
Maslows pyramid of needs

- at any given time we

act to fulfill the
strongest and most
achievable need
- once a need is
satisfied, it will no
longer be a
motivator.
 Herzbergs hygienemotivators theory

Hygiene factors (extrinsic job factors)

- inadequate working conditions or salary = dissatisfaction
still
- adequate hygiene factors will not motivate more

Motivators (intrinsic job factors)

- job enrichment (challenging job, feedback and recognition)
addresses higher-level (achievement, self-actualization) needs

- if they are not provided, the individual will not be demotivated

still

- if they are provided, motivation occurs

 Transactional analysis and motivation

1950s - Eric Berne began to develop theories on Transactional Analysis

-each person is made up of three alter ego states:
- Parent the taught concept of life
- Adult the thought concept of life
- Child the felt concept of life

If a crossed transaction occurs, communication is not successful.

When trying to motivate an individual,

it is highly important to understand how to use these stimuli and to
analyze if the feedback provided creates the grounds for successful
communication.
Because movement in a human beings life
is a spiral:
we come back to where we started from,
always following our footsteps, only at a
higher level, on the next step of the spiral,
progress and regress at the same time
and always both of them.
George MacDonald (1824-1905)