3. Work motivation

The work of managers is to guide and coach their employees and as a result to achieve the objectives of the company. That is why each manager must know what motivates people.

There are three theories of motivation.

The first is “The need hierarchy theory”. Five types of needs are defined here: physiological, safety, social, self-esteem and self-actualization. According to the theory poor salary and working conditions will motivate employees to focus on meeting their basic needs. Improving conditions, you improve the behaviour of supervisors and their interrelations with employees. But nowadays the aspect of self-actualization is more important than fulfilling basic needs. Furthermore, moving up in the management hierarchy, people get motivated by increasingly higher level needs; employees always strive for more. So, the greater desire for satisfaction of their needs becomes a continuing source of motivation.

The second theory is based on the principle of social comparison that is how a person evaluates himself in comparison with others. According to this theory a person can get out of his job as much as he puts into, the so called forms of a ratio of his inputs to outcomes, which is compared to the perception of the other person’s ratio. If there is some difference in employees’ outcomes with the same contributions, there should be equity or fairness in the correlation between what you put into a job and what you get out of it in comparison with other people. To avoid inequity there should be neither underpayment nor overpayment.

The third theory is called “Expectancy theory”. Each person must be a sensible decision maker in order to achieve desired rewards. This theory consists of the following parts: job outcomes (for instance, promotion and vacation time at work), valence (feelings of satisfaction), instrumentality (an individual’s performance on the job), expectancy (events and performance correspond with effort and plans) and force (the amount of motivation).

Expectancy theory gives a rational ground for understanding motivation in a given job.

There are three theories more. “The Reinforcement Theory”, which is based on stimulus, response and reward. The use of this theory in industry concerns absence and turnover reduction, productivity enhancement and improvement of supervisory training. But ethical points associated with the reinforcement of behaviour should be taken into consideration.

And “the Goal-Setting Theory”, where goals are the motivation basis and thus they direct behaviour. The more difficult and more specific the goal the greater will be our motivation to attain it and the higher will be promotion.

Another is “the two-factor theory”, where factors of satisfaction and dissatisfaction influence the performance. The first group of factors (satisfaction) is called ‘motivators’ (a challenging job, responsibility, promotion, recognition, etc.). The other group is called ‘dissatisfies’ (company policy and administration, wages and fringe benefits, job security, status and personal life).

The most important thing for each manager is to motivate his employees to work harder. Thus, managers should focus their attention on job content, find ways of making jobs more interesting and challenging and give the employees a sense of achievement.

Here are some pieces of advice how to raise the level of motivation in work organizations:

• Place people on jobs where their motives & values are appropriate for.

• Make jobs attractive.

• Put clear, challenging and attainable work goals.

• Make sure the employees get enough personnel and material resources to facilitate their efficiency.

• Create positive environment.

TEN WAYS TO MOTIVATE TODAY`S EMPLOYEES:

1. For doing a good job thank employees personally frequently and sincerely.

2. Find the time to meet and listen to employees.

3. Provide specific feedback concerning performance of the person, the department and the organization.

4. Create the work environment of openness and trust.

5. Encourage new ideas and initiative.

6. Involve employees in decision-making process.

7. Recognize, reward and promote people according to their performance.

8. Create a partnership with each employee.

9. Celebrate successes – of the company, of the department and of individual in it.

10. Be flexible, have democratic attitude to your employees.

Task 1

Translate into Russian.

To guide and coach one’s employees; to motivate smb; hierarchy; safety; self-actualization; working conditions; to improve the behaviour of supervisors; fulfilling basic needs; to strive for more; to be based on smth; to get out of one’s job; to be compared to(with) the perception; equity; in the correlation; underpayment; the expectancy theory; to consist of smth; vacation time; the reinforcement theory; response; productivity enhancement; to take into consideration; to influence the performance; wages; job security; to be appropriate for; personnel and material resources; to create positive environment; to involve employees in decision-making process; to have attitude to smb.

Task 2

Translate into English.

Достигать целей; мотивация; определять/формулировать запросы (нужды); самоуважение; низкая зарплата; сосредоточиться на чем-то; взаимоотношение со служащими; двигаться вверх в управленческой иерархии/в иерархии системы управления; желание удовлетворения своих потребностей; оценивать себя в сравнении с другими; вкладывать; соотношение между затратами и результатами; вклад/взнос; честность/справедливость; избегать несправедливости; переплата; добиваться желаемых наград; результаты работы; стимул; ассоциироваться с чем-то; достигать цели; признание; дополнительные льготы; сосредотачивать свое внимание на содержании работы; достижимые рабочие цели; способствовать чей-либо результативности; обеспечивать обратную связь; быть гибким.

Task 3

Match the following words according to the text and use these expressions in your own sentences.

1. poor	a) hierarchy
2. ethical	b) environment
3. working	c) goals
4. fringe	d) conditions
5. job	e) salary
6. attainable	f) feedback
7. personal and material	g) attitudes
8. democratic	h) motivation
9. positive	i) resources
10. specific	j) security
11. management	k) benefits
12. work	l) points

Task 4

Put these sentences into a negative form.

Model: Recognize people according to their performance. – Don’t recognize people according to their performance.

1. Place people on jobs where their motives & values are appropriate for.

2. Make jobs attractive.

3. Put clear and challenging work goals.

4. Make sure the employees get enough personnel and material resources to facilitate their efficiency.

5. Create positive environment.

6. Thank employees personally frequently and sincerely.

7. Meet and listen to employees.

8. Provide specific feedback concerning performance of the person.

9. Encourage new ideas and initiative.

10. Involve employees into decision-making process.

11. Promote people according to their performance.

12. Create partnership with each employee.

13. Celebrate successes of the company.

14. Be flexible.

15. Have democratic attitude to your employees.

Task 5

Change these sentences into a) disjunctive questions, b) general ones and c) alternative ones.

1. There are three theories of motivation.

2. You improve the behaviour of supervisors.

3. The aspect of self-actualization is important nowadays.

4. Employees always strive for more.

5. The greater desire for satisfaction of the needs becomes a continuing source of motivation.

6. The third theory is called “Expectancy theory”.

7. The third theory consists of some parts.

8. Expectancy theory gives a rational ground for understanding motivation.

9. The use of the reinforcement theory in industry concerns turnover reduction.

10. Goals are the motivation basis.

11. Goals direct behaviour.

12. Managers focus their attention on job content.

Task 6

Read the text