1.4.4 Motivation in practice Flashcards
What is the definition of motivation in a business context?
The desire for employees to be productive and help the organisation to achieve its corporate objectives.
What are benefits of high motivation of employees?
- Lower labour turnover
- Lower absenteeism
- Greater productivity
- Improved efficiency
- Possible increased customer service
What does Fredrick Taylors theory suggest ?
- Workers are financially incentivised to work harder and are inherently lazy.`
What are some financial incentives taylor suggested that motivated employers ?
- Piece rate pay : Instead of getting paid a wage, you get paid for each piece of work you output
-Output bonuses : If workers achieve a certain level of output they receive a bonus
-Commission : Pay commission in sales roles and pay lower salaries
-Profit sharing : Sharing profits with workforce to motivate them to generate profits for businesses.
What did Frederick Herzbergs two factor theory suggest?
(Hygiene factors)
Hygiene factors such as : Pay, working environment and colleague relationships did NOT motivate you, however if an employer was unhappy about these hygiene factors it could demotivate you and damage morale
Improvement in these areas will not improve prod.
What were Frederick Hertzberg’s motivating factors ?
These are factors which genuinely stimulate and increase motivation in work force to be more productive
1 - Opportunities for promotion and self improvement : Better roles within organisation, paid for training and education
2 - Job design : Job enlargement, job enrichment, empowerment
What is job enlargement ?
Giving employees a larger variety of tasks to do
What is job enrichment
Giving workers more challenging and complex tasks to do
What is empowerment ?
Giving workers more decision making responsibility and power.
Describe the stages in taylors method
1- Analyse work process
2- Standardise the work process
3- Select and train the workers
4 - Provide financial incentives
What are some advantages of taylors theory ?
1 - Higher efficiency which lowers costs
2 - Standardised procedures for work processes that everyone follows which leads to lower amount of error
3 - Clear hierarchy and lines of command can make decision making easier
What are some disadvantages to taylors theory ?
- Overemphasis on efficiency reduces worker satisfaction and reduces creativity
- Potential for exploitation eg sweat shops
- Workers may disengage from work if they are worked like machines
What did Elton Mayo’s studies conclude ?
- Workers have social influences which impact productivity and efficiency such as understanding and improving relations between workers, supervisors and management. This lead to HR departments.
What are some advantages of Mayo’s theory
- Increased productivity as workers feel valued and supported
- Better communication as workers feel more valued and are likely to be more open and honest.
- Employee empowerment increases sense of employee’s responsibility.
What are some disadvantages of mayos theory
- Time consuming as building positive relationships require time and effort
- Lack of control as workers take more decisions
- May not work for business which has staff that are highly autonomous.
