Motivation is defined as the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. Motivation is the key to performance improvement. There’s a saying that you can take a horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink. The horse will only drink if it’s thirsty and the same is true of people. They will only do what they are motivated to do. For an employee to excel they must be motivated to do it. This motivation can be internal (self-motivated) or external.

The best type of motivation is self-motivation. The person who is driven to excel due to some inward catalyst needs little guidance or oversight. Those who are not self- motivated will need some attention. For anyone can be motivated, it’s a skill that must be learned. Motivation is an essential ingredient for effective performance. How well employees perform will determine the organizations success or failure.

Performance (P) is considered to be a function (f) of ability (A) and motivation (M), thus: P=f(A)(M). Ability depends on education, experience and training, and increasing an employee’s ability can be a slow process. On the other hand motivation can be improved quickly. As a guideline, there are seven methods for motivation:

  1. Positive reinforcement: Rewarding an employee for displaying desired behavior. Praising employees who do things right and setting the bar high to encourage them to excel to greater heights.
  2. Negative reinforcement and punishment: Negative reinforcement is the removal of something the employee doesn’t like when he demonstrates the desired behavior. Punishment, on the other hand, is a form of discipline and is used to get rid of unwanted behavior in an employee.
  3. Treating people fairly: Basically this is accomplished by living by the “Golden Rule”
  4. Satisfying employees’ needs: According to Maslow’s hierarchy, if an employees safety and security needs aren’t satisfied, he can’t move on to higher level needs. The effective manager ensures the employee’s basic needs are met and guides him in the attainment of higher level needs.
  5. Setting work related goals: In meeting the needs of the individual and the organization, the manager will help the employee establish goals that will satisfy individual needs and meet the more global needs of the organization.
  6. Restructuring jobs: This involves analyzing job tasks to identify functions that are performed, but aren’t essential, and to match the job with the employees skill and abilities.
  7. Base rewards on job performance: This involves setting performance goals and recognizing employees who exceed those goals.

These are the basic methods for motivation and will vary from workplace situation to situation. Motivation is key to performance. Basically the difference between the employee’s current performance level and the desired performance level will determine what areas the manager needs to address. The gap between the present state and the desired state must be overcome for the employee and the organization to achieve success. Motivation is a means to reduce and manipulate this gap and must be tailored to the situation and the organization.

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