Once upon a time when there was a drumbeat about motivating employees, I used to be sick of the term motivation. But of late, I was getting interested in motivation. Maybe it is a sign of me getting absorbed into The Matrix, but I think I am interested in it to satisfy my curiosity about what motivates certain people and keeps them going. I started reading Dan Pink’s Drive: Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us just before returning from onsite – I had to return it at library, will try to finish it some time. Couple of days back I saw two related Motivational Theories in a comment in a HR blog.
Theory X and Theory Y – X says that employees are inherently lazy and managers should monitor/control work. Y states that employees maybe self motivated, ambitious and can exercise self-control. It is interesting to see how many managers think theory X is correct vs. theory Y. As usual, most might fall between both.
Two Factor Theory – states that there are two sets of factors – one of which gives job satisfaction (challenge, recognition, responsibility) and other is hygiene (job, security, salary) lack of which can lead to job dissatisfaction. One interesting thing there for me is, it says improvement in hygiene doesn’t lead to increasing job satisfaction, but only reduces job dissatisfaction – that the factors act independently. Basically that means we should address hygiene and then move on to address other set of factors.
The book, Drive, so far said two things that were interesting:- one is that you need not work up through the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (pyramid with basic human need at bottom to self realization/actualization at top), but you can satisfy multiple needs simultaneously (like a struggling actor giving quality performance). Second is that carrot/stick works to an extent beyond which only autonomy, mastery of work and purpose drives people.
Lastly – another interesting thing was Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) – let people have their way with where/when/how they work, but it only matters whether the intended result was achieved.
Creating a culture in a large organization would be tough (especially with things like ROWE), but it will be interesting to understand what motivates different people and work on creating the best environment possible for them.
Theory X and Theory Y – X says that employees are inherently lazy and managers should monitor/control work. Y states that employees maybe self motivated, ambitious and can exercise self-control. It is interesting to see how many managers think theory X is correct vs. theory Y. As usual, most might fall between both.
Two Factor Theory – states that there are two sets of factors – one of which gives job satisfaction (challenge, recognition, responsibility) and other is hygiene (job, security, salary) lack of which can lead to job dissatisfaction. One interesting thing there for me is, it says improvement in hygiene doesn’t lead to increasing job satisfaction, but only reduces job dissatisfaction – that the factors act independently. Basically that means we should address hygiene and then move on to address other set of factors.
The book, Drive, so far said two things that were interesting:- one is that you need not work up through the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (pyramid with basic human need at bottom to self realization/actualization at top), but you can satisfy multiple needs simultaneously (like a struggling actor giving quality performance). Second is that carrot/stick works to an extent beyond which only autonomy, mastery of work and purpose drives people.
Lastly – another interesting thing was Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) – let people have their way with where/when/how they work, but it only matters whether the intended result was achieved.
Creating a culture in a large organization would be tough (especially with things like ROWE), but it will be interesting to understand what motivates different people and work on creating the best environment possible for them.
