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PREFACE

No book on the subject ‘Motivation’ would probably cover the

subject fully and for all times. We have tried to describe motivation in
an all-encompassing perspective. This does not mean that every
aspect of the subject has been covered. That would be impossible.
Because ‘Motivation’ is highly intrinsic and individualized, only readers
themselves can understand as to what motivates an individual and
accordingly may work upon it.

Majority of the books on ‘Motivation’ are written from the point of view
of an employer. Most of the issues are discussed in relation to employer
- employee relationships. However, a practicing manager has a very
limited role as far as job contents, design or working conditions are
concerned. Nevertheless, he has an important role to play i.e. creating
the right environment for people and being transparent, to feel
motivated and perform. Although, almost all the books on motivation
emphasize the need for creating the right environment yet how to do it
remains unanswered. This book will hopefully help readers to create a
conducive and congenial work environment.

Motivation is like an accelerator in a vehicle. A vehicle keeps moving at

the pace decided by its accelerator. The moment accelerator is
reduced, vehicle’s speed reduces and it may come to a standstill if
there is no further acceleration. Alternatively, if brakes are applied,

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there will be an abrupt reduction in the speed of the vehicle and it may
come to a standstill.

This is true to human beings as well. As long as they are motivated they
keep working and producing extraordinary results. The moment there is
a drop in their acceleration (motivation), results start diminishing. Of
course, applying brakes (dissatisfaction/demotivation) certainly bring
them to a halt. The only difference is that unlike a vehicle, human
beings have different types of accelerator and brake.

We hope that reading this book motivates you from the first word to the
last and beyond in your happy, fulfilling life!

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INTRODUCTION
What is Motivation?

Nearly all the conscious behavior of human being is motivated.

The internal needs and desires lead to tensions, which in turn result
into actions. For instance, the need for food results into hunger and
hence a person is motivated to eat. A manager is required to create
and maintain an environment in which individuals work together in
groups towards the accomplishment of common objective. A manager
cannot do a job without knowing what motivates people. It is a
general tendency to believe that motivation is a personal trait. Some
people have it and others don’t. In practice, some are labeled as lazy
because they do not display an outward sign of motivation. It also
depends upon their areas of interest. The concept of motivation is
situational and its level varies between different individuals and at
different times. If you understand what motivates people, you have at
your command the most powerful tool for dealing with them.

Motivation is defined as an urge in an individual to perform goal

directed behavior. Motivation is the will to work. . It is the willingness to
exert high level of efforts towards organizational goals, conditioned by
efforts and ability to satisfy some individual need. Motivation is a
general term applied to the entire class of desires, needs, wishes and
similar forces. To say that manager motivate their subordinates is to
say that they do those things which they hope will satisfy their drives
and desires and induce the subordinates to act in a desired manner.

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 Motivation comes from the enjoyment of the work itself and/or
from the desire to achieve certain goals e.g. earn more money or
achieve promotion. Therefore, motivation cannot be inflicted from
outside but it is an intrinsic desire in a man to achieve the target goal
through performance or activity.

Motives are expression of person’s need. Hence, they are

personal and internal. Incentives on the other hand are external to the
person. They are made part of work environment by management in
order to encourage workers to accomplish task. The motivational model
indicates that a sense of felt deprivation generates needs and such
needs create tension in an individual. The individual perceive and
makes cost benefit analysis on the ways and means of releasing such
tension. Once such perception is cleared, individual pounces upon the
activities and achieves some results. If it is success he feels rewarded
and falls in the cycle of motivation again. If it is failure he feels
punished and once again after due modification of ways and means
pounces back on the cycle or feels frustrated. Therefore, motivation
leads to a goal directed behavior.
When people join an organization, they bring with them certain
needs that affect on-the-job performance. Some of these needs are
physiological; others are related to psychological and social values. .
They interact with the environment to shape on-the-job wants that are
the basis of motivation. Motivation is affected by people’s perceptions,
including their feelings of equity or fairness in a situation.
According to a model developed by Herzberg, motivation is influenced

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by maintenance and motivational factors. Important motivational
factors are the work itself, achievement, growth, responsibility,
advancement and recognition. These are primarily intrinsic motivators
rather than extrinsic ones. Behavior modification states that behavior
depends on its consequences. It is achieved through operant condition.
Its various approaches include positive and negative reinforcement,
shaping, and extinction. Punishment normally is not used.
Reinforcement can be continuous or partial. Criticism of behavior
modification is that it manipulates people and does not apply very well
in complex work environments.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOTIVATION, SATISFACTION,

INSPIRATION and MANIPULATION

MOTIVATION- refers to the drive and efforts to satisfy a want or goal.

SATISFACTION- refers to the contentment experienced when a want is

satisfied

INSPIRATION – refers to bringing about a change in this thinking pattern

MANIPULATION- refers to getting things done from others in a

predetermined manner.

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 INSPIRATION SATISFACTI
ON

MOTIVATION

ACTION Or RESULT

DEMOTIVATION

MANIPULATION DISSATISFACT
ION

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WHY MOTIVATION IS IMPORTANT IN MANAGEMENT…???

Motivation is what we call our driving force over ’get up and go’.
It stimulates our senses in achievement of goals that have been set out
for us. It is this reason that we consider motivation to be detrimental to
the facets of management within the work force. Its ability to shape the
world into its own driving force is what becomes important for the
success of organization.

A leader’s job is, therefore, to inculcate the extirpation of the group

morale if he proposes to achieve the target through his follows where
equal weight is given to performance of task and welfare of the
followers, a stage of suspended pendulum or middle of the road
method.

REQUISITES TO MOTIVATE….!!!!!

• We have to be motivated to motivate!

• Motivation requires goal!

• Motivation once established does not last if not repeated!

• Motivation requires ‘recognition’!

• Participation has motivation effect!

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 • Seeing ourselves progressing motivates us!

• Challenge only motivates if you can win!

• Everybody has a motivational fuse i.e. everybody can be

motivated!

• Group belonging motivates!

STEPS FOR MOTIVATION

With solid compensation in place, let's look at non-monetary

motivation...20 steps to success.

1. Recognition/Attention. When your employees accomplish

something they have achieved something. Your recognition is
appreciation for that achievement. It is believed that most managers
don't give enough recognition because they don't get enough.
Therefore, it doesn't come natural to do it. If this applies to you, you
need to drop this excuse like a bad habit! Become a giver! Look at the
price. Recognition is free!

2. Applause. A form of recognition yes, but a very specific form.

Physically applaud your people by giving them a round of applause for
specific achievements. Where? When? The answer is wherever and
whenever. At meetings or company-sponsored social gatherings, a

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luncheon, or in the office. At the end of a shift, before a shift, and
whenever possible in the middle of a shift.

Using plaques or trophies is another effective way of applauding your

people. Although "wooden applause" is often successfully used in the
form of Employee of the Month plaques, more creative ideas are sorely
underutilized. Take the time to be creative, matching special
accomplishments with unique awards.

3. One-on-One Coaching. Coaching is employee development. Your

only cost is time. Time means you care. And remember your people
don't care how much you know... until they know how much you care.

4. Training. Is training ever finished? Can you possibly over train? NO

and NO. For whatever reasons, too many people feel "My people have
already been trained" or "I've got good people...they only need a little
training." But training never ends. Schedule "tune- up" training
sessions. These should be led by you or by a supervisor with help from
specific employees who show a particular strength in the skills taught.
This may take time, but these types of training sessions will continually
enhance the performance of your people and the productivity of your
business.

5. Career Path. Your employees need to know what is potentially

ahead for them, what opportunities there are for growth. This issue is a
sometimes forgotten ingredient as to the importance it plays in the
overall motivation of people.

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Set career paths within your organization. Do you promote from within?
Hopefully you can answer yes to that. Although specific circumstances
require you to look for talent outside your company you should always
first consider internal personnel. If you do this you are sending a very
positive message to everyone that there are indeed further career
opportunities within your organization.

6. Job Titles. When you talk about job titles you are tapping the self-
esteem of people. How someone feels about the way they are
perceived in the workforce is a critical component to overall attitude
and morale. Picture a social gathering that includes some of your staff.
The subject of work inevitably comes up. Will your people be proud, or
embarrassed, to share their title and workplace? The importance of
feeling proud of who you are and what you do is monumental.

Be creative as you think of possibilities for titles. Have your staff come
up with ideas giving them input into the titles. Bottom line, you are
dealing with pride...and pride enhances a positive attitude...and a
positive attitude is the foundation for continuing success.

7. Good Work Environment. A recent industry study shows just how

inaccurate your results can be. Employers were asked to rank what
they thought motivated their people and then employees were asked to
rank what really did motivate them.

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Employers felt "working conditions" was a nine (or next to last) in terms
of importance. What did the employees say? Number two! Working
conditions are very important to the way employees feel about where
they work.

Cosmetically, does your office look nice? Are there pictures on the
walls, plants and fresh paint among other features that generally make
people feel good about their environment? Does their work space have
enough room or are they cramped in a "sardine can?" What about
furniture? Is the desk the right size, chair comfortable? Is there file
space and do they have the miscellaneous office supplies needed for
maximum performance? Is the temperature regulated properly so they
don't feel they're in the Amazon jungle one minute and the North Pole
the next?

8. on-the-Spot Praise. This too is associated with recognition but the

key here is timing. When there is a reason for praising someone don't
put it off for any reason! Promptness equals effectiveness. Praise
people when the achievement is fresh on everyone's mind.

What is effective is for us to get off our keisters and go out and tell
whoever it is what a great presentation it was or applaud them for the
sale...praise them promptly for what they accomplished or achieved!
Don't allow time to creep in and snatch away any ounce of the positive
impact that praise can have when it is delivered promptly.

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9. Leadership Roles. Give your people leadership roles to reward
their performance and also to help you identify future promotable
people. Most people are stimulated by leadership roles even in spot
appearances. For example, when visitors come to your workplace use
this opportunity to allow an employee to take the role of visitors guide.

A great place to hand out leadership roles is to allow your people to

lead brief meetings. Utilize your employees' strengths and skills by
setting up "tune up" training sessions and let one of your employees
lead the training. The best time to do this is when new people start.

Or, assign a meeting leader after someone has attended an outside

seminar or workshop. Have them lead a post show, briefing the other
employees regarding seminar content and highlights.

Have your employees help you lead a project team to improve internal
processes.

10. Team Spirit. Have a picture taken on your entire staff (including
you!), have it enlarged and hang it in a visible spot. Most people like to
physically see themselves as part of a group or team.

When running contests in your area, try to create contests and affiliated
activity that are team driven. People driving to reach goals together
definitely enhance team spirit solely because they must lean upon
others and be prepared to be leaned on.

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One very effective idea for me has been building a collage of creative
ideas with the "Team" theme. All employees are responsible for
submitting a phrase referring to TEAM on a weekly rotation. Each of
these ideas (such as TEAM: Total Enthusiasm of All Members or There is
no I in Team) is placed on a wall, creating a collage of Team-oriented
phrases. Don't have one person responsible for this...do it as a team.

11. Executive Recognition. This is the secret weapon. And like any
secret weapon, timing is most critical. If this is used too often the value
is diminished. And if it is used only for special occasions and rare
achievements the value is escalated. We talked earlier about general
recognition and the positive impact that has on your people. That will
go up a few notches when it comes from an executive. Some of the
same vehicles can be used here such as memos and voice mail. To add
yet another level of stimulation, have an executive either personally
call to congratulate someone (or a group) or even show up in person to
shake hands and express his or her appreciation.

12. Social Gatherings. Scheduled offsite events enhance bonding

which in turn helps team spirit, which ultimately impacts your positive
work environment. Halloween costume parties, picnics on July 4th,
Memorial Day or Labor Day, and Christmas parties are only some of the
ideas that successfully bring people together for an enjoyable time.
Some others that have been used with equal success are softball
games (against other companies or among employees, depending on
staff size), groups going putt-putt golfing or movie madness.

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13. Casual Dress Day. This will apply more to the Business-to-
Business world based on the difference in normal dress codes from the
Business-to-Consumer arena. For those required to "dress business"
every day a casual day becomes a popular desire. Use holidays to
create theme color casual days such as red and green before Christmas
or red, white and blue before July 4th, or black and orange prior to
Halloween. This will add to the impact you're trying to have by calling a
casual day in the first place. Establish pre-vacation casual days for each
individual employee to enjoy on the day before his or her vacation.

Major sports events are a perfect opportunity for casual days to support
your local or favorite team with appropriate colors, buttons, and logo
wear. Spontaneous casual days produce a lot or stimulation based on
the element of surprise. Announce a casual dress day for the following
work day "just because." Use individual or team casual dress days as
contest prizes or awards for specific accomplishment.

14. Time Off. Implement contests that earn time off. People will
compete for 15 minutes or 1/2 hour off just as hard as they will for a
cash award. And in many cases, people pick time off over cash when
given the choice. Put goals in place (padded of course) and when these
goals are reached by individuals, teams or the entire staff, reward them
with time off. Allow early dismissals, late arrivals, and extended lunch
periods or additional breaks.

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15. Outside Seminars. Outside seminars are a stimulating break.
Because outside seminars are not always cost efficient for most people,
consider on-site seminars or workshops for your staff. Use outside
seminars as a contest prize for one or two people. Then set up a
structured plan for those seminar attendees to briefly recreate the
seminar to the rest of your people when they return. Now everyone
gets educated for the price of one.

16. Additional Responsibility. There are definitely employees in

your organization who are begging for and can handle additional
responsibility. Our job as managers is to identify who they are and if
possible match responsibilities to their strengths and desires.

17. Theme Contests. Over the years theme contests have produced
up to 170% increase in performance. But equally as important, they've
helped maintain positive environments that have reduced employee
turnover by 400%.

Overall the most successful contests seem to be those affiliated with

different themes. Holidays, anniversaries, sports and culture are
examples of ideas to base contests on. Sports, without a doubt, provide
the largest opportunity for a wide variety of contests. Even Culture can
be used to create theme contest.

18. Stress Management. There are many articles and books

available on the subject. Make this reference material available to your

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people. Make sure they know it is available and encourage them to use
it.

If possible, have an in-house seminar on stress management

techniques. So that production time is not lost, you might consider
having a brown bag luncheon with a guest speaker on this subject.
Because stress is an ongoing concern, anytime is a good time for a
seminar like this to take place. Be as flexible as you can with breaks
during the course of the day.

19. Pizza/Popcorn/Cookie Days. Every now and then pizza, popcorn,

or cookie days will help break up that everyday routine and help people
stay motivated. Because it is a natural tendency for people to get
excited in anticipation of something, structure some of these days in
advance. Then buy some pizzas or different cookies or even whip out
some different types of popcorn.

20. Gags and Gimmicks. Use different gimmicks as awards to help

inspire performance increases from your people. The key to awards is
establishing the perception of priceless value that is associated with
them. They should be recognized as status symbols in your
environment. Here are some of my ideas:

• Plastic/rubber whale for "whale" of a performance.

• Pillsbury dough boy for the person raisin' the most bread.

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• Cardboard stars for star-studded performances.

• Plastic phonograph records for setting a new record.

• California raisins for those with the highest percentage of "raisin"

their productivity.

• Special parking space for the person who drives the hardest.

• Toy cymbals for those "symbolizing" total effort.

• Special Mountain Dew can for that person who exemplifies the
"can do" attitude.

• A figurine of E.T. for out-of-this-world performance.

• The Eveready Bunny for those that keep going, and going, and
going.

• Large Tootsie Roll replica for those on a "roll."

• A drum for the person that "drums" up the most business.

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Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is driven by an interest

or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather
than relying on
any external pressure. Intrinsic motivation has been studied by social a
nd
educational psychologists since the early 1970s. Research has found
that it is usually associated with high educational achievement and
enjoyment by students. Explanations of intrinsic motivation have been
given in the context of Fritz Heider's attribution theory, Bandura's work
on self-efficacy, and Deci and Ryan's cognitive evaluation theory.
Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:

 Attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can

control (e.g. the amount of effort they put in),

 Believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e.

the results are not determined by luck),

 Are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning

to achieve good grades.

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the individual. Common

extrinsic motivations are rewards like money and grades, coercion and
threat of punishment. Competition is in general extrinsic because it
encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the
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intrinsic rewards of the activity. A crowd cheering on the individual and
trophies are also extrinsic incentives.

Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can

lead to over justification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic
motivation. In one study demonstrating this effect, children who
expected to be (and were) rewarded with a ribbon and a gold star for
drawing pictures spent less time playing with the drawing materials in
subsequent observations than children who were assigned to an
unexpected reward condition and to children who received no extrinsic
reward.

Self-control

The self-control of motivation is increasingly understood as a subset

of emotional intelligence; a person may be highly intelligent according
to a more conservative definition (as measured by many intelligence
tests), yet unmotivated to dedicate his intelligence to certain
tasks. Yale School of Management professor - Victor Vroom's
"expectancy theory" provides an account of when people will decide
whether to exert self control to pursue a particular goal.

Drives and desires can be described as a deficiency or need that

activates behaviour that is aimed at a goal or an incentive. These are
thought to originate within the individual and may not require external
stimuli to encourage the behaviour. Basic drives could be sparked by

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deficiencies such as hunger, which motivates a person to seek food;
whereas more subtle drives might be the desire for praise and
approval, which motivates a person to behave in a manner pleasing to
others.

By contrast, the role of extrinsic rewards and stimuli can be seen in the
example of training animals by giving them treats when they perform a
trick correctly. The treat motivates the animals to perform the trick
consistently, even later when the treat is removed from the process.

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MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES

Incentive theory

A reward, tangible or intangible, is presented after the occurrence of an

action (i.e. behavior) with the intent to cause the behavior to occur
again. This is done by associating positive meaning to the behavior.
Studies show that if the person receives the reward immediately, the
effect would be greater, and decreases as duration lengthens.
Repetitive action-reward combination can cause the action to
become habit. Motivation comes from two sources: oneself, and other
people. These two sources are called intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation, respectively.

Applying proper motivational techniques can be much harder than it

seems. It may be noted that when creating a reward system, it can be
easy to reward A, while hoping for B, and in the process, reap harmful
effects that can jeopardize your goals.

A reinforce is different from reward as reinforcement is intended to

create a measured increase in the rate of a desirable behavior following
the addition of something to the environment.

Incentive theory in psychology treats motivation and behaviour of the

individual, as they are influenced by beliefs, such as engaging in
activities that are expected to be profitable. Incentive theory is

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promoted by behavioural psychologists, such as B.F. Skinner and
literalized, by behaviourists, especially by Skinner in
his philosophy of Radical behaviourism, to mean that a person's actions
always have social ramifications: and if actions are positively received
people are more likely to act in this manner, or if negatively received
people are less likely to act in this manner. Incentive theorists tend to
distinguish between wanting and liking, where liking is a passive
function evaluating a stimulus, but wanting adds an active process
"attracting" the person towards the stimulus.

Incentive theory distinguishes itself from other motivation theories,

such as drive theory, in the direction of the motivation. In incentive
theory, stimuli "attract", to use the term above, a person towards them.
As opposed to the body seeking to re-establish homeostasis pushing it
towards the stimulus. In terms of behaviourism, incentive
theory involves positive reinforcement: the stimulus has been
conditioned to make the person happier. For instance, a person knows
that eating food, drinking water, or gaining social capital will make
them happier. As opposed to in drive theory, which involves negative
reinforcement: a stimulus has been associated with the removal of
the punishment - the lack of homeostasis in the body.

Drive-reduction theories

There are a number of drive theories. The Drive Reduction

Theory grows out of the concept that we have certain biological drives,

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such as hunger. As time passes the strength of the drive increases if it
is not satisfied (in this case by eating). Upon satisfying a drive the
drive's strength is reduced. The theory is based on diverse ideas from
the theories of Freud to the ideas of feedback control systems, such as
a thermostat.

Drive theory has some intuitive or folk validity. For instance when
preparing food, the drive model appears to be compatible with
sensations of rising hunger as the food is prepared, and, after the food
has been consumed, a decrease in subjective hunger. There are several
problems, however, that leave the validity of drive reduction open for
debate. The first problem is that it does not explain how secondary
reinforces reduce drive. For example, money satisfies no biological or
psychological needs, but a pay check appears to reduce drive
through second-order conditioning. Secondly, a drive, such as hunger,
is viewed as having a "desire" to eat, making the drive a homo
nuclear being—a feature criticized as simply moving the fundamental
problem behind this "small man" and his desires.

In addition, it is clear that drive reduction theory cannot be a complete

theory of behaviour, or a hungry human could not prepare a meal
without eating the food before he finished cooking it. The ability of
drive theory to cope with all kinds of behaviour, from not satisfying a
drive (by adding on other traits such as restraint), or adding additional
drives for "tasty" food, which combine with drives for "food" in order to
explain cooking render it hard to test.

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Cognitive dissonance theory

Suggested by Leon Festinger, this occurs when an individual

experiences some degree of discomfort resulting from an
incompatibility between two cognitions. For example, a consumer may
seek to reassure himself regarding a purchase, feeling, in retrospect,
that another decision may have been preferable.

Another example of cognitive dissonance is when a belief and

behaviour are in conflict. A person may wish to be healthy, believes
smoking is bad for one's health, and yet continues to smoke.

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NEED THEORIES

Need hierarchy theory

Abraham Maslow's theory is one of the most widely discussed theories

of motivation.

The theory can be summarized as follows:

 Human beings have wants and desires which influence their

behaviour. Only unsatisfied needs influence behaviour, satisfied
needs do not.

 Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance,

from the basic to the complex.

 The person advances to the next level of needs only after the
lower level need is at least minimally satisfied.

 The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality,

humanness and psychological health a person will show.

The needs, listed from basic (lowest-earliest) to most complexes

(highest-latest) are as follows:

 Physiology (hunger, thirst, sleep, etc.)

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  Safety/Security/Shelter/Health

 Belongingness/Love/Friendship

 Self-esteem/Recognition/Achievement

 Self actualization

Herzberg's two-factor theory

Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory, a.k.a. intrinsic/extrinsic

motivation, concludes that certain factors in the workplace result in job
satisfaction, but if absent, they don't lead to dissatisfaction but no
satisfaction.

The factors that motivate people can change over their lifetime, but
"respect for me as a person" is one of the top motivating factors at any
stage of life.

He distinguished between:

 Motivators; (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility)

which give positive satisfaction, and

 Hygiene factors; (e.g. status, job security, salary and fringe

benefits) that do not motivate if present, but, if absent, result in
demotivation.

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The name Hygiene factors is used because, like hygiene, the presence
will not make you healthier, but absence can cause health
deterioration.

The theory is sometimes called the "Motivator-Hygiene Theory" and/or

"The Dual Structure Theory."

Herzberg's theory has found application in such occupational fields as

information systems and in studies of user satisfaction (see Computer
user satisfaction).

Alderfer's ERG theory

Alderfer, expanding on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, created the ERG

theory (existence, relatednessand growth). Physiological and safety,
the lower order needs, are placed in the existence category,
while love and self esteem needs are placed in the relatedness
category. The growth category contains our self-actualization and self-
esteem needs. Alderfer argues that there are three groups of core need
— existence, relatedness, and growth hence the label: ERG theory. The
existence group is concerned with providing our basic material
existence requirements. They include the items that Maslow considered
to be physiological and safety needs. The second group of needs is
those of relatedness- the desire we have for maintaining important
interpersonal relationships. These social and status desires require
interaction with others if they are to be satisfied, and they align with

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Maslow's social need and the external component of Maslow's esteem
classification. Finally, Alderfer isolates growth needs' an intrinsic desire
for personal development. These include the intrinsic component from
Maslow's esteem category and the characteristics included under self-
actualization.

Self-determination theory

Self-determination theory, developed by Edward Deci and Richard

Ryan, focuses on the importance of intrinsic motivation in driving
human behaviour. Like Maslow's hierarchical theory and others that
built on it, SDT posits a natural tendency toward growth and
development. Unlike these other theories, however, SDT does not
include any sort of "autopilot" for achievement, but instead requires
active encouragement from the environment. The primary factors that
encourage motivation and development are autonomy, competence
feedback, and relatedness.

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COGNITIVE THEORIES

Goal-setting theory

Goal-setting theory is based on the notion that individuals sometimes

have a drive to reach a clearly defined end state. Often, this end state
is a reward in itself. A goal's efficiency is affected by three features:
proximity, difficulty and specificity. An ideal goal should present a
situation where the time between the initiation of behaviour and the
end state is close. This explains why some children are more motivated
to learn how to ride a bike than mastering algebra. A goal should be
moderate, not too hard or too easy to complete. In both cases, most
people are not optimally motivated, as many want a challenge (which
assumes some kind of insecurity of success). At the same time people
want to feel that there is a substantial probability that they will
succeed. Specificity concerns the description of the goal in their class.
The goal should be objectively defined and intelligible for the individual.
A classic example of a poorly specified goal is to get the highest
possible grade. Most children have no idea how much effort they need
to reach that goal.

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Models of behaviour change

Social-cognitive models of behaviour change include the constructs of

motivation and volition. Motivation is seen as a process that leads
to the forming of behavioural intentions. Volition is seen as a
process that leads from intention to actual behaviour. In other
words, motivation and volition refer to goal setting and goal
pursuit, respectively. Both processes require self-regulatory
efforts. Several self-regulatory constructs are needed to operate
in orchestration to attain goals. An example of such a motivational
and volitional construct is perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is
supposed to facilitate the forming of behavioural intentions, the
development of action plans, and the initiation of action. It can
support the translation of intentions into action.

Unconscious motivation

Some psychologists believe that a significant portion of human

behaviour is energized and directed by unconscious motives. According
to Maslow, "Psychoanalysis has often demonstrated that the
relationship between a conscious desire and the ultimate unconscious
aim that underlies it need not be at all direct.”

33
Other theories

 Reversal theory

 Motivating operation

Controlling motivation

The control of motivation is only understood to a limited extent. There

are many different approaches of motivation training, but many of
these are considered pseudoscientific by critics. To understand how
to control motivation it is first necessary to understand why many
people lack motivation.

Sudbury Model schools' approach to motivation

Sudbury Model schools adduce that the cure to the problem of

procrastination, of learning in general, and particularly of scientific
illiteracy is to remove once and for all what they call the underlying
disease: compulsion in schools. They contend that human nature in a
free society recoils from every attempt to force it into a mold; that the
more requirements we pile onto children at school, the surer we are to
drive them away from the material we are trying to force down their
throats; that after all the drive and motivation of infants to master the
world around them is legendary. They assert that schools must keep
that drive alive by doing what some of them do: nurturing it on the
freedom it needs to thrive.

34
Sudbury Model schools do not perform and do not offer evaluations,
assessments, transcripts, or recommendations, asserting that they do
not rate people, and that school is not a judge; comparing students to
each other, or to some standard that has been set is for them a
violation of the student's right to privacy and to self-determination.
Students decide for themselves how to measure their progress as self-
starting learners as a process of self-evaluation: real life-long learning
and the proper educational evaluation for the 21st century, they
adduce. According to Sudbury Model schools, this policy does not cause
harm to their students as they move on to life outside the school.
However, they admit it makes the process more difficult, but that such
hardship is part of the students learning to make their own way, set
their own standards and meet their own goals. The no-grading and no-
rating policy helps to create an atmosphere free of competition among
students or battles for adult approval, and encourages a positive
cooperative environment amongst the student body.

Business

At lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, such as physiological

needs, money is a motivator; however it tends to have a motivating
effect on staff that lasts only for a short period (in accordance
with Herzberg's two-factor model of motivation). At higher levels of the
hierarchy, praise, respect, recognition, empowerment and a sense of
belonging are far more powerful motivators than money, as
both Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation and Douglas

35
McGregor's theory X and theory Y(pertaining to the theory of
leadership) demonstrate.

Maslow has money at the lowest level of the hierarchy and shows other
needs are better motivators to staff. McGregor places money in his
Theory X category and feels it is a poor motivator. Praise and
recognition are placed in the Theory Y category and are considered
stronger motivators than money.

 Motivated employees always look for better ways to do a job.

 Motivated employees are more quality oriented.

 Motivated workers are more productive.

The average workplace is about midway between the extremes of high

threat and high opportunity. Motivation by threat is a dead-end
strategy, and naturally staff is more attracted to the opportunity side of
the motivation curve than the threat side. Motivation is a powerful tool
in the work environment that can lead to employees working at their
most efficient levels of production.

Nonetheless, Steinmetz also discusses three common character types

of subordinates: ascendant, indifferent, and ambivalent that all react
and interact uniquely, and must be treated, managed, and motivated
accordingly. An effective leader must understand how to manage all
characters, and more importantly the manager must utilize avenues

36
that allow room for employees to work, grow, and find answers
independently.

The assumptions of Maslow and Herzberg were challenged by a classic

study at Vauxhall Motors' UK manufacturing plant. This introduced the
concept of orientation to work and distinguished three main
orientations: instrumental (where work is a means to an end),
bureaucratic (where work is a source of status, security and immediate
reward) and solidarity (which prioritizes group loyalty).

Other theories which expanded and extended those of Maslow and

Herzberg included Kurt Lewin's Force Field Theory, Edwin Locke's Goal
Theory and Victor Vroom's Expectancy theory. These tend to stress
cultural differences and the fact that individuals tend to be motivated
by different factors at different times.

According to the system of scientific management developed

by Frederick Winslow Taylor, a worker's motivation is solely determined
by pay, and therefore management need not consider psychological or
social aspects of work. In essence, scientific management bases human
motivation wholly on extrinsic rewards and discards the idea of intrinsic
rewards.

In contrast, David McClelland believed that workers could not be

motivated by the mere need for money—in fact, extrinsic motivation
(e.g., money) could extinguish intrinsic motivation such as achievement

37
motivation, though money could be used as an indicator of success for
various motives, e.g., keeping score. In keeping with this view, his
consulting firm, McBer & Company, had as its first motto "To make
everyone productive, happy, and free." For McClelland, satisfaction lay
in aligning a person's life with their fundamental motivations.

Elton Mayo found that the social contacts a worker has at the workplace
are very important and that boredom and repetitiveness of tasks lead
to reduced motivation. Mayo believed that workers could be motivated
by acknowledging their social needs and making them feel important.
As a result, employees were given freedom to make decisions on the
job and greater attention was paid to informal work groups. Mayo
named the model the Hawthorne effect. His model has been judged as
placing undue reliance on social contacts at work situations for
motivating employees.

In Essentials of Organizational Behaviour, Robbins and Judge examine

recognition programs as motivators, and identify five principles that
contribute to the success of an employee incentive program:

 Recognition of employees' individual differences, and clear

identification of behaviour deemed worthy of recognition

 Allowing employees to participate

 Linking rewards to performance

 Rewarding of nominators

38
 Visibility of the recognition process

TYPES:

1) Achievement Motivation

It is the drive to pursue and attain goals. An individual with

achievement motivation wishes to achieve objectives and advance up
on the ladder of success. Here, accomplishment is important for its own
shake and not for the rewards that accompany it. It is similar to ‘Kaizen’
approach of Japanese Management.

(2) Affiliation Motivation

It is a drive to relate to people on a social basis. Persons with affiliation

motivation perform work better when they are complimented for their
favorable attitudes and co-operation.

(3) Competence Motivation

It is the drive to be good at something, allowing the individual to

39
perform high quality work. Competence motivated people seek job
mastery, take pride in developing and using their problem-solving skills
and strive to be creative when confronted with obstacles. They learn
from their experience.

(4) Power Motivation

It is the drive to influence people and change situations. Power

motivated people wish to create an impact on their organization and
are willing to take risks to do so.

(5) Attitude Motivation

Attitude motivation is how people think and feel. It is their self

confidence, their belief in them, their attitude to life. It is how they feel
about the future and how they react to the past.

(6) Incentive Motivation

It is where a person or a team reaps a reward from an activity. It is “You

do this and you get that”, attitude. It is the types of awards and prizes
that drive people to work a little harder.

(7) Fear Motivation

40
Fear motivation coercions a person to act against will. It is
instantaneous and gets the job done quickly. It is helpful in the short
run.

SEVEN RULES OF MOTIVATION

#1 Set a major goal, follow a path. The path has mini

goals that go in many directions. When you learn to succeed
at mini goals, you will be motivated to challenge grand
goals.

#2 Finish what you start. A half finished project is of no

use to anyone. Quitting is a habit. Develop the habit of
finishing self-motivated projects.

#3 Socialize with others of similar interest. Mutual

support is motivating. We will develop the attitudes of our
five best friends. If they are losers, we will be a loser. If they
are winners, we will be a winner. To be a cowboy we must

41
associate with cowboys.

#4 Learn how to learn. Dependency on others for

knowledge supports the habit of procrastination. Man has
the ability to learn without instructors. In fact, when we
learn the art of self-education we will find, if not create,
opportunity to find success beyond our wildest dreams.

#5 Harmonize natural talent with interest that

motivates. Natural talent creates motivation, motivation
creates persistence and persistence gets the job done.

#6 Increase knowledge of subjects that inspires. The

more we know about a subject, the more we want to learn
about it. A self-propelled upward spiral development.

#7 Take risk. Failure and bouncing back are elements of

motivation. Failure is a learning tool. No one has ever
succeeded at anything worthwhile without a string of
failures.

42
ABRAHAM MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
MOTIVATIONAL MODEL

Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50s

USA, and the Hierarchy of Needs theory remains valid today for
understanding human motivation, management training, and personal
development. Indeed, Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of
Needs concerning the responsibility of employers to provide a
workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to
fulfill their own unique potential (self-actualization) are today more
relevant than ever. Abraham Maslow's book Motivation and Personality,
published in 1954 (second edition 1970) introduced the Hierarchy of
Needs, and Maslow extended his ideas in other work, notably his later
book Toward A Psychology Of Being, a significant and relevant
commentary, which has been revised in recent times by Richard Lowry,
who is in his own right a leading academic in the field of motivational
psychology.

The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs five-stage model below (structure and

terminology - not the precise pyramid diagram itself) is clearly and
directly attributable to Maslow; later versions of the theory with added
motivational stages are not so clearly attributable to Maslow. These
extended models have instead been inferred by others from Maslow's
work. Specifically Maslow refers to the needs Cognitive, Aesthetic and
Transcendence (subsequently shown as distinct needs levels in some

43
interpretations of his theory) as additional aspects of motivation, but
not as distinct levels in the Hierarchy of Needs.

Where Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is shown with more than five levels,
these models have been extended through interpretation of Maslow's
work by other people. These augmented models and diagrams are
shown as the adapted seven and eight-stage Hierarchy of Needs
pyramid diagram and models.

There have been very many interpretations of Maslow's Hierarchy of

Needs in the form of pyramid diagrams. The diagram here is based on
interpretations and is not offered as Maslow's original work.

44
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter,
warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law,

limits, stability, etc.

3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection,

relationships, etc.

45
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence,
status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-

fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

Douglas McGregor - Theory XY

Douglas McGregor's XY Theory, managing an X Theory boss, and

William Ouchi's Theory Z

Douglas McGregor, an American social psychologist, proposed his

famous X-Y theory in his 1960 book 'The Human Side of Enterprise'.
Theory x and theory y are still referred to commonly in the field of
management and motivation, and whilst more recent studies have
questioned the rigidity of the model, McGregor’s X-Y Theory remains a
valid basic principle from which to develop positive management style
and techniques. McGregor's XY Theory remains central to
organizational development, and to improving organizational culture.

McGregor's X-Y theory is a salutary and simple reminder of the natural

rules for managing people, which under the pressure of day-to-day
business are all too easily forgotten.

McGregor's ideas suggest that there are two fundamental approaches

to managing people. Many managers tend towards theory x, and
generally get poor results. Enlightened managers use theory y, which

46
produces better performance and results, and allows people to grow
and develop.

McGregor's ideas significantly relate to modern understanding of the

Psychological Contract, which provides many ways to appreciate the
unhelpful nature of X-Theory leadership, and the useful constructive
beneficial nature of Y-Theory leadership.

Theory x ('authoritarian management' style)

• The average person dislikes work and will avoid it if he/she can.

• Therefore most people must be forced with the threat of

punishment to work towards organizational objectives.

• The average person prefers to be directed; to avoid

responsibility; is relatively not ambitious, and wants security
above all else.

47
Theory y ('participative management' style)

• Effort in work is as natural as work and play.

• People will apply self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of

organizational objectives, without external control or the threat of
punishment.

• Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with

their achievement.

• People usually accept and often seek responsibility.

• The capacity to use a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and

creativity in solving organizational problems is widely, not
narrowly, distributed in the population.

• In industry the intellectual potential of the average person is only

partly utilized.

48
CEOs implementing Motivation

A. Colleen Barrett, COO & President, Southwest Airlines.

Leadership Lessons on Motivation

Create strong culture- Southwest airlines employees are committed to

what they do and how they do it. The way people feel about themselves
and their colleagues owes a great deal to the culture that colleen
Barrett has helped to foster.

Be Visible- Colleen Barrett is everywhere within southwest airlines. She

attends parties and corporate gatherings and makes herself seen and
heard.

Show strength- The airline industry is not for the faint of heart. You
have to be strong and make tough decisions.

Allow people to lead- people at southwest are not put into boxes.
Colleen Barrett sees to it that they have opportunities to grow and
develop their talents and skills.

Treat people right-Colleen Barrett hits the nail on the head when she
speaks of treating people well; it is common sense that she has
parlayed into a successful business with hundreds of thousands of
motivated employees.

“Walk the talk”- Colleen Barrett does what she says she will do and
accepts the same of everyone else. Values are fundamental to

49
southwest airlines and she makes certain everyone understands and
practices them.

50
B. Motivation Lessons - Azim Premji

51
Lesson # 1: Always strive for excellence:

There is a tremendous difference between being good and being

excellent in whatever you do. In the world of tomorrow, just being good
is not good enough. One of the greatest advantages of globalization is
that it has brought in completely different standards. Being the best in
the country is not enough; one has to be the best in the world.
Excellence is a moving target. One has to constantly raise the bar. In
the knowledge-based industries, India has the unique advantage of
being a quality leader. Just like Japan was able to win in the overseas
market with its quality leadership in automobile manufacturing, India
has been able to do the same in information technology. At Wipro, we
treat quality as the #1 priority. This enabled us not only to become the
world’s first SEI CMM Level 5 software services company in the world
but also a leader in Six Sigma approach to quality in India.

Lesson # 2: Learn to work in teams:

The challenges ahead are so complex that no individual will be able to

face them alone. While most of our education is focused in individual
strength, teaming with others is equally important. You cannot fire a
missile from a canoe. Unless you build a strong network of people with
complimentary skills, you will be restricted by your own
limitations.Globalization has brought in people of different origin,
different upbringing and different cultures together.

52
Lesson # 3: Take care of yourself:

The stress that a young person faces today while beginning his or her
career is the same as the last generation faced at the time of
retirement.I have myself found that my job has become enormously
more complex over the last two or three years. Along with mutual
alertness, physical fitness will also assume a great
importance in your life.
You must develop your own mechanism for dealing with stress. I have
found that a daily jog for me goes a long way in releasing the pressure
and building up energy.

Lesson # 4: Persevere:
Finally, no matter what you decide to do in your life, you must
persevere. Keep at it and you will succeed, no matter how hopeless it
seems at times. In the last three and half decades, we have gone
through many difficult times. But we have found that if we remain true
to what we believe in, we can surmount every difficulty that comes in
the way. Perseverance can make miracles happen

Lesson # 5: Have a broader social vision:

For decades we have been waiting for some one who will help us in
‘priming the pump’ of the economy.The government was the logical
choice for doing it, but it was strapped for resources. Other countries
were willing to give us loans and aids but there was a limit to this.

53
C. HOWARD SCHULTZ
The chief executive officer of Starbucks corporation, Howard Schultz,
considers that the tip of success in Starbucks is not coffee but
employees. Constantly accumulating the working experience of
employees and providing chances of promotion in a company for
working partners is the way to operate sustainability. He firmly believes
that the spirit of Starbucks is employees and feels honored about the
value of Starbucks employees. For this reason, it is necessary to have a
perfect education and training policy for better performance in a
company. Starbucks offers an interactive structure that makes
personnel instill themselves into their job; hence they can motivate
partners to satisfy themselves then achieving a new level of
performance.

1. Equal treatment

The managers in Starbucks treat each workpeople equally and all of the
staffs are called ‘partners’, even the supervisors of each branch are
called it as well. In order to narrow the gap between managers and
employees, they also co-work with the basic level staffs in the front
line. Due to this, they can maintain a well management system and
create a much closer and more familiar atmosphere than other place,
which makes not only employees can enjoy their job but also customers
are affected by their enthusiasm.

2. Listen to employees

54
Starbucks has a well-organized communication channel for employees.
It places a great importance on labors. For example, managers plan the
working hours per workers and arrange the schedule of time off,
according to their wants to meet their requirements. There are
interviews weekly to see what employees’ need is. A special survey
called ‘Partner View Survey’ is taken off approximate every two years.
The managers can receive feedbacks through the event to which part
should be improved or what issue should be paid more attention to.

The partners have the right to figure out what is the best policy for
them, and the directors show a respect for each suggestion. Starbucks
even wants every employee to join in making and developing plans,
then achieving their goals all together. As a result, the policies and
principles are communicated between all staffs, and there is no
limitation in employees’ personal opinions. For this reason, business
could improve their strategies even innovate by different ideas.

3. Good welfare measures

All employees, including informal personnel, are offered a great deal of

welfare policies, for instance, commodities discounts for employees,
medical insurance (including health, vision and dental) and vacations.
Moreover, the partners who work over 20 hours a week are entitled for
benefits. Starbucks also thinks that debt financing is not the best
choice, thus it chose allocate stock dividend to all employees with a free
scrip issue. By this policy, the employees can get benefits from the
dividends of company. Because of this, they have the same goal; in other
words, they are motivated to increase the sales to earn more profits.
55
Starbucks just handles personnel with its core value, which is the
employees are the most important asset of Starbucks. Showing a
respect to employees and well-developed environment have lead
Starbucks to produce the best working quality for customers and an
increase in profits.

4. Teamwork

Teamwork can not only construct a small social structure in

organization for employees to socialize, but also composite of various
kind of members who equip with different background of skill and
knowledge on account of the mission. Each member plays an important
role in the teamwork; therefore everyone in that team can meet their
need for getting acquainted with different colleagues and learn new
skill from each other. Hoegl & Gemuenden (2001) observed that the
definition of teamwork is a social system including more than three
people in an organization or context. These members identity others as
one member of the team and they have the same goal. Robbins (2001)
stated that the factors influencing teamwork are relation of leadership,
roles, principles, status, size, composition and the power of
agglomerate.

4.1 The strategies to keep cordial relationships

Starbucks establishes a well-developed system to keep good

relationship between managers and employees. At first, the leaders of
a retail shops use the same title “partner” as a basic level worker to
narrow the gap of bureaucracy. Furthermore, they co-work in the first

56
line to eliminate the distance between different statuses. Secondly, the
numbers of employees are usually from three to six. Such a small size
of a retail shop makes staffs acquaint with each other easily and
deeply. In the co-working period, this helps a team to match different
personalities and majors quickly to achieve well performance. Next, the
suggestions and complaints provided by employees are treated of
equal importance. In the same way, they have a right to participate in
the process of revising company policies as well as a manager. In that
case, each staff thinks that they also play an important role in company
operating, and they can join to work out a direction of Starbucks. These
give employees not only a respect, but a sense of participation.

4.2 A goal of public welfare

Starbucks has endeavored to create “third place” (outside from home

or office) for people to take a rest (resource: Wikipedia). They want to
provide such a comfortable environment to increase the
harmoniousness of the society. Apart from this, Starbucks contributes
part of its profits to public service; on the other hand, it also set a goal
to improve and donate to the society. As a consequence, the aim
makes all staffs have an idea that what they do for Starbucks is for the
society as well. As the goal theory, Starbucks set a challenging and
specific goal, and it permits all partners to decide the direction.
Afterward, employees embrace to do what they chose and they get
some feedbacks form the goal. The concept causes an increase of the
power of agglomerate and enthusiasm in relation with a positive effect
to the profit of Starbucks.

57
D. BILL GATES
Motivation Techniques at Microsoft
With more than 4,000 of its 27,000 employees already millionaires,
Microsoft faces the challenge of figuring out how to motivating its
employees though means other than pay raises. While this problem is
not unique to Microsoft, the circumstances under which this problem
evolved are unique. As a company that must caters to the needs of the
'professional' worker, Microsoft's motivational strategy should center on
recognition of individual employee achievements, the work itself,
responsibility, growth, and other characteristics that people find
intrinsically rewarding. By simple virtue of its position as a high-tech
company - where highly trained, highly skilled 'professional' workers
account for the vast majority of its employees - under normal
circumstances money factors would play only limited role in actually
motivating employees.

As Microsoft stock-holders, the average Microsoft millionaire (the so

called paper millionaire') has a vested interest in helping the company
succeed and advance its financial position. This is true because the
stockholder will directly correlate the amount of money they earn with
the perceived worth to the organization. Driven by the idea that their
financial success or failures are directly related to the performance (as
well as public image) of the company, these employees will work with
great vigor to maintain the success of their company. Until their
financial position no longer depends on the company's stock
performance - that is, until theses employees sell their stock and secure

58
their fortunes - the Microsoft millionaires will likely view themselves as
masters of their own destiny.

THE CHALLENGES OF HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT

Introduction

The role of the Human Resource Manager is evolving with the change in
competitive market environment and the realization that Human
Resource Management must play a more strategic role in the success
of an organization. Organizations that do not put their emphasis on
attracting and retaining talents may find themselves in dire
consequences, as their competitors may be outplaying them in the
strategic employment of their human resources.

With the increase in competition, locally or globally, organizations must

become more adaptable, resilient, agile, and customer-focused to
succeed. And within this change in environment, the HR professional
has to evolve to become a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or
advocate, and a change mentor within the organization. In order to
succeed, HR must be a business driven function with a thorough
understanding of the organization’s big picture and be able to influence
key decisions and policies. In general, the focus of today’s HR Manager
is on strategic personnel retention and talents development. HR
professionals will be coaches, counselors, mentors, and succession
planners to help motivate organization’s members and their loyalty.
The HR manager will also promote and fight for values, ethics, beliefs,

59
and spirituality within their organizations, especially in the
management of workplace diversity.

This paper will highlight on how a HR manager can meet the challenges
of workplace diversity, how to motivate employees through gain-
sharing and executive information system through proper planning,
organizing, leading and controlling their human resources.

Workplace Diversity

According to Thomas (1992), dimensions of workplace diversity include,

but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical
abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background,
geographic location, income, marital status, military experience,
religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience.

The Challenges of Workplace Diversity

The future success of any organizations relies on the ability to manage

a diverse body of talent that can bring innovative ideas, perspectives
and views to their work. The challenge and problems faced of
workplace diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational asset
if an organization is able to capitalize on this melting pot of diverse
talents. With the mixture of talents of diverse cultural backgrounds,
genders, ages and lifestyles, an organization can respond to business
opportunities more rapidly and creatively, especially in the global arena
(Cox, 1993), which must be one of the important organisational goals to
be attained. More importantly, if the organizational environment does
not support diversity broadly, one risks losing talent to competitors.

60
This is especially true for multinational companies (MNCs) who have
operations on a global scale and employ people of different countries,
ethical and cultural backgrounds. Thus, a HR manager needs to be
mindful and may employ a ‘Think Global, Act Local’ approach in most
circumstances. The challenge of workplace diversity is also prevalent
amongst Singapore’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). With a
population of only four million people and the nation’s strive towards
high technology and knowledge-based economy; foreign talents are
lured to share their expertise in these areas. Thus, many local HR
managers have to undergo cultural-based Human Resource
Management training to further their abilities to motivate a group of
professional that are highly qualified but culturally diverse.
Furthermore, the HR professional must assure the local professionals
that these foreign talents are not a threat to their career advancement
(Toh, 1993). In many ways, the effectiveness of workplace diversity
management is dependent on the skilful balancing act of the HR
manager.

One of the main reasons for ineffective workplace diversity

management is the predisposition to pigeonhole employees, placing
them in a different silo based on their diversity profile (Thomas, 1992).
In the real world, diversity cannot be easily categorized and those
organizations that respond to human complexity by leveraging the
talents of a broad workforce will be the most effective in growing their
businesses and their customer base.

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The Management of Workplace Diversity

In order to effectively manage workplace diversity, Cox (1993) suggests

that a HR Manager needs to change from an ethnocentric view ("our
way is the best way") to a culturally relative perspective ("let's take the
best of a variety of ways"). This shift in philosophy has to be ingrained
in the managerial framework of the HR Manager in his/her planning,
organizing, leading and controlling of organizational resources.

As suggested by Thomas (1992) and Cox (1993), there are several best
practices that a HR manager can adopt in ensuring effective
management of workplace diversity in order to attain organizational
goals. They are:

Planning a Mentoring Program

One of the best ways to handle workplace diversity issues is through

initiating a Diversity Mentoring Program. This could entail involving
different departmental managers in a mentoring program to coach and
provide feedback to employees who are different from them. In order
for the program to run successfully, it is wise to provide practical
training for these managers or seek help from consultants and experts
in this field. Usually, such a program will encourage organization’s
members to air their opinions and learn how to resolve conflicts due to
their diversity. More importantly, the purpose of a Diversity Mentoring
Program seeks to encourage members to move beyond their own
cultural frame of reference to recognize and take full advantage of the
productivity potential inherent in a diverse population.

62
Organizing Talents Strategically

Many companies are now realizing the advantages of a diverse

workplace. As more and more companies are going global in their
market expansions either physically or virtually (for example, E-
commerce-related companies), there is a necessity to employ diverse
talents to understand the various niches of the market. For example,
when China was opening up its markets and exporting their products
globally in the late 1980s, the Chinese companies (such as China’s
electronic giants such as Haier) were seeking the marketing expertise
of Singaporeans. This is because Singapore’s marketing talents were
able to understand the local China markets relatively well (almost 75%
of Singaporeans are of Chinese descent) and as well as being attuned
to the markets in the West due to Singapore’s open economic policies
and English language abilities. (Toh, R, 1993) .With this trend in place,
a HR Manager must be able to organize the pool of diverse talents
strategically for the organization. He/She must consider how a diverse
workforce can enable the company to attain new markets and other
organizational goals in order to harness the full potential of workplace
diversity.

An organization that sees the existence of a diverse workforce as an

organizational asset rather than a liability would indirectly help the
organization to positively take in its stride some of the less positive
aspects of workforce diversity.

63
Leading the Talk

A HR Manager needs to advocate a diverse workforce by making

diversity evident at all organizational levels. Otherwise, some
employees will quickly conclude that there is no future for them in the
company. As the HR Manager, it is pertinent to show respect for
diversity issues and promote clear and positive responses to them.
He/She must also show a high level of commitment and be able to
resolve issues of workplace diversity in an ethical and responsible
manner.

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MOTIVATIONAL APPROACHES

Workplace motivation can be defined as the influence that makes us do

things to achieve organizational goals: this is a result of our individual
needs being satisfied (or met) so that we are motivated to complete
organizational tasks effectively. As these needs vary from person to
person, an organization must be able to utilize different motivational
tools to encourage their employees to put in the required effort and
increase productivity for the company.

Why do we need motivated employees? The answer is survival (Smith,

1994). In our changing workplace and competitive market
environments, motivated employees and their contributions are the
necessary currency for an organization’s survival and success.
Motivational factors in an organizational context include working
environment, job characteristics, and appropriate organizational reward
system and so on.

The development of an appropriate organizational reward system is

probably one of the strongest motivational factors. This can influence
both job satisfaction and employee motivation. The reward system
affects job satisfaction by making the employee more comfortable and
contented as a result of the rewards received. The reward system
influences motivation primarily through the perceived value of the
rewards and their contingency on performance (Hickins, 1998). To be

65
effective, an organizational reward system should be based on sound
understanding of the motivation of people at work. In this paper, I will
be touching on the one of the more popular methods of reward
systems, gain-sharing.

Gain-sharing

Gain-sharing programs generally refer to incentive plans that involve

employees in a common effort to improve organizational performance,
and are based on the concept that the resulting incremental economic
gains are shared among employees and the company. In most cases,
workers voluntarily participate in management to accept responsibility
for major reforms. This type of pay is based on factors directly under a
worker’s control (i.e., productivity or costs). Gains are measured and
distributions are made frequently through a predetermined formula.
Because this pay is only implemented when gains are achieved, gain-
sharing plans do not adversely affect company costs (Paulsen, 1991).

Managing Gain-sharing

In order for a gain-sharing program that meets the minimum

requirements for success to be in place, Paulsen (1991) and Boyett
(1988) have suggested a few pointers in the effective management of a
gain-sharing program. They are as follows:

1. A HR manager must ensure that the people who will be participating

in the plan are influencing the performance measured by the gain-
sharing formula in a significant way by changes in their day-to-day

66
behavior. The main idea of the gain sharing is to motivate members to
increase productivity through their behavioral changes and working
attitudes. If the increase in the performance measurement was due to
external factors, then it would have defeated the purpose of having a
gain-sharing program.

2. An effective manager must ensure that the gain-sharing targets are

challenging but legitimate and attainable. In addition, the targets
should be specific and challenging but reasonable and justifiable given
the historical performance, the business strategy and the competitive
environment. If the gain-sharing participants perceive the target as
impossibility and are not motivated at all, the whole program will be a
disaster.

3. A manager must provide useful feedback as guidance to the gain-

sharing participants concerning how they need to change their
behavior(s) to realize gain-sharing payouts. The feedback should be
frequent, objective and clearly based on the members’ performance in
relation to the gain-sharing target.

4. A manager must have an effective mechanism in place to allow gain-

sharing participants to initiate changes in work procedures and
methods and/or requesting new or additional resources such as new
technology to improve performance and realize gains. Though a
manager must have a tight control of company’s resources, reasonable

67
and justifiable requests for additional resources and/or changes in work
methods from gain-sharing participants should be considered.

EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Executive Information System (EIS) is the most common term used for
the unified collections of computer hardware and software that track
the essential data of a business' daily performance and present it to
managers as an aid to their planning and decision-making (Choo,
1991). With an EIS in place, a company can track inventory, sales, and
receivables, compare today's data with historical patterns. In addition,
an EIS will aid in spotting significant variations from "normal" trends
almost as soon as it develops, giving the company the maximum
amount of time to make decisions and implement required changes to
put your business back on the right track. This would enable EIS to be a
useful tool in an organization’s strategic planning, as well as day-to-day
management (Laudon, K and Laudon, J, 2003).

Managing EIS

As information is the basis of decision-making in an organization, there

lies a great need for effective managerial control. A good control
system would ensure the communication of the right information at the
right time and relayed to the right people to take prompt actions.

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When managing an Executive Information System, a HR manager must
first find out exactly what information decision-makers would like to
have available in the field of human resource management, and then to
include it in the EIS. This is because having people simply use an EIS
that lacks critical information is of no value-add to the organization. In
addition, the manager must ensure that the use of information
technology has to be brought into alignment with strategic business
goals (Laudon, K and Laudon, J, 2003).

The role of the HR manager must parallel the needs of the changing
organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable,
resilient, quick to change directions, and customer-centered. Within this
environment, the HR professional must learn how to manage effectively
through planning, organizing, leading and controlling the human
resource and be knowledgeable of emerging trends in training and
employee development.

69
EXTRAORDINARY REAL STORIES OF TRIUMPH AND
DETERMINATION

Inspirational: True story of Kal Raman: CEO who studied under

streetlights
From studying under the streetlights to CEO of a US firm!

Here is the rags-to-riches story of an extremely talented boy from a

small village in Tamil Nadu who has risen to be the chief executive
officer of a company in Seattle, USA.

It is also the story of how Kalyana Raman Srinivasan, who was so

indigent that he had to study under a streetlight, but then managed to
score excellent marks, rose in life and became today's Kal Raman.

At every turn in his life, he took the difficult path and it turned out to be
the right one and in the right direction. His rise to the top is more
dramatic than a thriller. Today, he is a very successful entrepreneur
and the founder-CEO of Global Scholar.

70
Difficult childhood

Kal Raman was born and brought up in a small village called

Mannarakoil in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. It was a comfortable
normal middle class life for him and his siblings as his father was a
Tahasildar there.

But the sudden death of his father at the age of 45 changed everything
overnight.
Kal was 15 then. "My mother got a pension of Rs 420 a month and you
can imagine how tough it is to educate four children and feed five
months with Rs 420?"

Life changed dramatically after his father's death. The family moved
from the rented house to a hut that had no proper water supply or
electricity. Kal Raman remembers, "All of us used to study under the
streetlight and, thank god, the streetlights used to work those days!
MGR (M G Ramachandran) was the chief minister then. We had to sell
the plates to buy rice to eat and my mother used to give us rice in our
hands. That bad was our situation."

But his mother, who had studied till the 8th standard, was very
particular that her children studied. "All our relatives wanted my elder
brother to stop studying and take up the small job offered by the
government but my mother wanted him to continue studying."
"Then they wanted me to learn typewriting and shorthand so that I
could get some job after the 10th standard. But mother said, 'My
children are going to get the best education I can offer. Education is our
salvation.' She was my hero for her vision and she still is my hero."

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What kept the family going? "We were sad but because we accepted
our fate, we were at peace with whatever that happened to us. We
knew our father would not come back to lift us up from poverty. We
also knew our salvation was a long way away."

He didn't know why he used to tell his mother, "One day I will give you
so much money that you will not know what to do with it!" Years later,
he did exactly that!

First turning point in life

Kal Raman believes that God played a hand in all the major turning
points in his life. The first turning point in life was after his 12th
standard. He got good marks in both the engineering and medicine
entrance exams, and for engineering, he got admission at the Anna
University in Chennai while for medicine, it was in the Tirunelveli
Medical College.

"While going in the bus with my mother to join the medical college, I
told her, "If I join for medicine here, the high probability is that my life
may begin and end in Tirunelveli. I really want to see the world.' She
agreed with my decision to go to Chennai and join Anna University and
study Electrical Engineering and Electronics."

So, he stepped into a new world outside Tirunelveli, and that was
Chennai. Though he had got merit scholarship and a lot of good people
helped him pay the initial fee, the scholarship amount never used to
reach him regularly or on time.
"The mess fee was Rs 250 a month and I used to be a defaulter in the
mess at least six months in a year. Till you pay the mess fee, you

72
cannot eat in the mess. So, I used to live on day scholars' lunch boxes
and also use to fast. That is when I learnt to fast! I must say a lot of
friends helped me with money and food."

Scarcity of money was so bad that he had no money to buy food just
before the final semester exams. When he gave his final semester
exams, he had not eaten for a day-and-a-half. "After finishing the exam,
I almost fainted."
The day after the exams came all the scholarship money that was due
and it was around Rs 5,000. "So, I went home a rich man and that
helped us repay some loans."

First job

Like opting for Chennai and joining Anna University instead of a college
in Tirunelveli, Kal Raman took another risk with his first job also. His
first job was with Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE), and he had a choice
of joining either Chennai or Mumbai.

Although he knew nobody in Mumbai, he chose the capital of

Maharashtra.

He remembered the first day. "It was interesting. With bag and
baggage, I went to the TCE office after taking a shower at the railway
station as I had no money to go to any hotel. After the first introduction
at the office, the manager noticed that I was wearing slippers to the
office. He called me and said, "I don't care which college you are
coming from but this is not acceptable. You should come in shoes
tomorrow."
73
I said I couldn't come in shoes the next day and this manager construed
as arrogance. "How could you talk like this?" he asked me. I said, "Sir, it
is not that I don't want to, but I can't afford to buy shoes. Only after I
get my first pay cheque, can I buy shoes. Sir, I request you not to
terminate my job because of this. I and my family need this job."

Shocked to hear the explanation, the manager asked, "Where are you
staying?" and the reply was, "Dadar Railway Station."

So distressed was the manager to hear Kal speak that he immediately

released a month's salary in advance and also arranged for him to be at
his friend's place till he could find a place to stay. "He bought me a pair
of shoes and those were my first shoes. The next day, I sent Rs 1,500
from the advance to my mother."

From electrical engineering to programming

Kal's rise in career was meteoric in a short span of time. Within a

month, he got a chance to move to Bengaluru (then Bangalore) and
also to programming. Soon, he was in Chennai with Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS). Within a few months, he was sent to Edinburgh, UK.
From Edinburgh, his next stop was the United States. In 1992, he went
to the US as an entry level contractor with Wal-Mart. In two years, he
was a director running a division.

When he left Wal-Mart after six years, he was a man running the
information systems for the International Division of the retail giant. In
1998, he joined drugstore.com Online Pharmacy as the chief

74
information officer and in 2001 at the age of 30; he was the CEO of the
company.

He was at the right place at the right time. "God was there at every
step guiding me to take the right decisions. I was also willing to take
risks and tread new paths," Kal says.

Starting GlobalScholar

Philanthropist Mike Milken who had donated more than a billion dollars
to education, wanted to use technology so that high quality education
was accessible to ordinary people. Milken convinced Kal to join him.
That was the time Kal was building schools in his village for poor
students.

In October 2007, GlobalScholar was launched targetting both teachers

and students by acquiring four companies -- National Scholar (USA),
Classof1 (India), Excelsior (USA), and Ex-Logica (USA) -- that were into
education. "Three months after the launch, I travelled all over the US,
India, Singapore and China talking to teachers and companies and the
public. I found that the only way to impact education was by impressing
teachers. The biggest scarcity in the world is good teachers. We
decided to help teachers with teaching practices and kids, learning
practices."

75
Kal Raman decided to concentrate on the US market as the US is more
advanced in using technology. "They are also willing to pay money for
technology. At present, schools buy the material which can be used by
teachers, students and parents. "Today, they have 200 people working
for GlobalScholar in Chennai and 150 in the US. The study material is
prepared in the Chennai office.

The company that was started with $50 million will have in excess of
$32 million and will generate $5 million of profits. In 2008, the turnover
of the company was Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) and in 2009, it was Rs
80 crore (Rs 800 million). In the current year it will be 150-160 crore (Rs
1.5-1.6 billion).

"GlobalScholar is growing at 200 per cent every year. We have 1,000

schools and 10 million students, which is one out of 10 kids in the US,
using our study material. This is almost 18 per cent of the US
population. We are the fastest growing education company in the US.
"GlobalScholar will soon introduce a pilot project in India and China. In
the course of all this, Kalyana Raman became Kal Raman. "The country
gave me everything and took half my name."

Giving back to society

Kal Raman is in India now for the Kumbhabhishekam of the temple at

his village Mannarkoil. "It is taking place after 500 years. It is the
culmination of two-and-a-half years of work. I have spent more than
one and a half crore rupees (Rs 15 million) to renovate the temple and

76
do the Kumbhabhishekam. More than anything else, I have given jobs
to all my friends in the village who are masons and carpenters. "Other
than this, he has also adopted all the orphanages around his village and
he takes care of around 2,000 kids, some of whom are physically
handicapped.

"I feel if I can educate these children, eventually we can make a

difference in the society. We also help 100 children in their higher
education. Around my village, everyone knows that if a kid who studies
well cannot afford to pay fees, he has to only come to my house; his
education will be taken care of."

77
An inspiring story of CEO of PepsiCo and the Fortune / Time
magazine’s most influential women in the world – the Chennai
born Indra Krishnamoorthy Nooyi:

It’s a simple story of a powerful woman. A story of an Indian girl who

came from conservative Chennai to pursue higher studies in the US
with little money and no safety net. If she failed, she failed. A story of
this determined girl, who while studying in Connecticut, worked as a
receptionist from midnight to sunrise to earn money and struggled to
put together US$50 to buy herself a western suit for her first job
interview out of Yale, where she had just completed her masters.
Incidentally, she wasn’t comfortable trying out a formal western outfit
and ended up buying trousers that reached down only till her ankles.
Rejected at the interview, she turned to her professor at the school who
asked her what she would wear if she were to be in India. To her reply

78
that it would be a sari, the professor advised her to “be yourself” and
stick to what she was comfortable with. She wore a sari for her next
interview. She got the job and has followed this philosophy for the rest
of her career. She’s been herself, never tried to change her basic
beliefs, derived strength from her traditions and believed in who she is.
As she says, “I’m so secure in myself, I don’t have to be American to
play in the corporate life.” She worked hard and in time was counted as
one of the most powerful women in the world by Forbes.

It all began years ago in Chennai, where she studied hard in school to
get her grades. She remembers how her mother would, after meal
every day asked Indra and her sister what they would like to become
when they grew up. They would come up with different ideas and their
mother would reward the best idea each day. It forced Indra to think
and dream for herself. It was this dream that led her to be a part of the
11th batch of IIM Kolkata. After two years of work with Johnson &
Johnson and Mettur Beardsell in India, it was this fiery urge that took
her to America in 1978, when she left India with barely any money to
pursue a management degree from the prestigious Yale Graduate
School of Management.

Starting off with Boston Consulting Group in 1980, she knew it would be
harder work for her than others for two reasons – one, she was a
woman and two; she wasn’t an American but an outsider. She spent six
years directing international corporate strategy projects at the Boston
Consulting Group. Her clients ranged from textiles and consumer goods

79
companies to retailers and specialty chemicals producers. Six years
later, she joined Motorola in 1986 as the vice-president and director of
corporate strategy & planning. She moved to Asea Brown Boveri in
1990 and spent four years as vice president (corporate strategy &
planning). She was part of the top management team responsible for
the company’s U.S. business as well as its worldwide industrial
businesses, generating about one-third of ABB’s $30 billion in global
sales.

An interesting tale surrounds her joining PepsiCo in 1994. At that time

she also had an offer from General Electric, one of the world’s best run
companies under Jack Welch. The Pepsi CEO Wayne Callloway, in a bid
to lure her, told her, “Jack Welch (GE’s legendary boss) is the best CEO I
know, and GE is probably the finest company. But I have a need for
someone like you, and I would make PepsiCo a special place for you.”
Nooyi agreed.

She broke the glass ceiling when she was appointed senior vice
president, corporate strategy and development after joining PepsiCo in
1994 but she knew that getting there was one thing while staying there
was another. As she says, “If you want to reach the top of a company, I
agree that it can only happen in the United States, but you have to
start off saying that you have got to work twice as hard as your (male)
counterparts.” Not only did she work harder than her counterparts, she
also made her way up the ladder to become President and Chief

80
Financial Officer of PepsiCo, and was also appointed as a member of
board of directors of PepsiCo Inc – which she assumed in 2001.

Nooyi was 44 when she joined PepsiCo. Ever since, she has been
involved in every major strategic decision the company has made in the
last few years. That includes the drive to spin off PepsiCo’s fast food
chain in 1997, acquiring Tropicana in 1998, and the US$ 13 billion move
to acquire Quaker Oats. PepsiCo chief Roger Enrico announced her
elevation following the Quaker acquisition saying, “Indra’s contributions
to PepsiCo have been enormous and she will make a great President. In
addition to her new role as President and CFO, Indra will also be
nominated for election to the Pepsi board. She is a terrific addition to
our world-class board and her perspective will be invaluable.”

Indra attributes a lot of Pepsi’s success to its great employees. She

believes that a company remains great when there is a strong
competitor, like Coke. She believes if you have no competition, a
company will atrophy. Nooyi has a unique formula that keeps her work-
life balance. She feels that you must have an extended family at work
to give you that balance. To keep a company running at top speed, you
need to attract the best employees.

At PepsiCo she has ensured that employees actually balance life and
work. She views PepsiCo as an extended family and everybody at the
company is there to help in every way possible. Sometime ago, when
Indra was travelling, her daughter would call the office to ask for

81
permission to play Nintendo. The receptionist would know the routine
and ask: “Have you finished your homework? Have you had your snack?
OK, you can play Nintendo for half an hour”. She then left a voice
message for Indra saying “I gave Tara permission to play Nintendo”.
Unheard of in most corporations, it’s a team Indra has built up at
PepsiCo which knows each other so well.

Despite the monumental successes of her career, Indra Nooyi remains a

quintessentially Indian woman who has combined the high-octane
energy of her job with the calm, collected demeanour required to
manage the equally central responsibility of a mother and a wife. She
lives with her husband and two daughters in Fairfax County,
Connecticut. If you ever visit her Connecticut home, do remember to
take your shoes off before entering. If you forget, at least remember to
take them off before entering the large puja room where a diya is lit
and the inviting air of incense greets you. She keeps an image of
Ganesha in her office, and in fact, some PepsiCo officials visited India
and received similar images besides being told of the Hindu belief
about Ganesh being the symbols of auspicious beginnings. Many of
them now keep images of Ganesh in their offices! Nooyi attends
PepsiCo board meetings in a sari; for she believes the corporate world
appreciates people who are genuine.

At work, Nooyi is in the pressure cooker world of intriguing business

manoeuvres and frenetic multi-million dollar moves but when she
enters her home, it is like entering a sanctuary of calm. She says

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Carnatic music plays in their home 18 hours a day, and the feeling is
much like being in a temple. Does she think her religious convictions
help her to do a better job in the corporate world? “I don’t know about a
better job, but it certainly makes me calm,” she says. “There are times
when the stress is so incredible between office and home, trying to be a
wife, mother, daughter-in-law and corporate executive. Then you close
your eyes and think about a temple like Tirupati, and suddenly you feel
‘Hey–I can take on the world.’ Hinduism floats around you, and makes
you feel somehow invincible.”

Is it tough being a mother and a corporate executive? Nooyi admits it is

difficult, “You can walk away from the fact that you’re a corporate
executive, but you can’t walk away from the fact that you are a mom.
In terms of being a mother and a corporate executive, the role of mom
comes first.” She believes that her husband has been a great source of
strength for her. Adds Nooyi on a perkier tone, “Always pick the right
husband. I have a fantastically supportive husband.” What sees her
through tough times? “My family and my belief in God" If all else fails, I
call my mother in India when she’s there–and wake her up in the middle
of the night–and she listens to me. And she probably promises God a
visit to Tirupati!” Nooyi has always seen the world through the prism of
her mother’s faith and beliefs and calls her the guiding light in her life.

83
Barack Obama: A Motivational Story

84
Barack Hussein Obama was born August 4, 1961, at Kapi'olani
Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother,
Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, of mostly English,
some German and Irish descent. His great-great-great grandfather
hailed from County Offaly. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo
from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama's parents
met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii at
Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.

85
Early Childhood

Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "That my father looked nothing

like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother
white as milk—barely registered in my mind." He described his
struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his
multiracial heritage. Reflecting later on his formative years in Honolulu,
Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a
variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral
part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."
Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana and
cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of
my mind." At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama identified
his high-school drug use as a great moral failure.

Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend

Occidental College. In February 1981, he made his first public speech,
calling for Occidental's divestment from South Africa. In mid-1981,
Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and sister Maya, and
visited the families of college friends in India and Pakistan for three
weeks. Later in 1981 he transferred to Columbia University in New York
City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in
international relations and graduated with a B.A. in 1983. He worked for
a year at the Business International Corporation then at the New York
Public Interest Research Group.

86
Chicago community organizer and Harvard Law School

After four years in New York City, Obama was hired in Chicago as
director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based
community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in
Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman and Riverdale) on Chicago's
far South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June
1985 to May 1988. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff
grew from one to thirteen and its annual budget grew from US$70,000
($141,564 in 2010) to US$400,000 ($735,648 in 2010). He helped set
up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and
a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked
as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a
community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first
time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where
he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time. He returned in
August 2006 for a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu
in rural western Kenya.

In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as

an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year, and
president of the journal in his second year. During his summers, he
returned to Chicago, where he worked as a summer associate at the
law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.
Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law
Review gained national media attention and led to a publishing contract
and advance for a book about race relations, which evolved into a

87
personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as
Dreams from My Father.

University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney

In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and

Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on
his first book. He then served as a professor at the University of
Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996,
and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional
law.

From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a

voter registration drive with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer
registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000
unregistered African Americans in the state, and led to Crain's Chicago
Business naming Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to
be. In 1993 he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney
law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighbourhood
economic development, where he was an associate for three years from
1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license
becoming inactive in 2002.

From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the

Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to
fund the Developing Communities Project, and of the Joyce Foundation.
He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg

88
Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of
the board of directors from 1995 to 1999. (Robinson, Mike (Associated
Press) February 20, 2007. "Obama got start in civil rights practice".

Bid for Presidency

Barack Obama's bid for the U.S. presidency was a long-shot when he
announced it to great fanfare on the steps of the Illinois capitol on a
freezing day in February 2007.

But the triumphant son of a black Kenyan father and a white mother
from Kansas romped to a landslide victory over crushed Republican
candidate John McCain. It was the crowning moment of a staggering
rise from being a virtually unknown first-time US senator to become the
most powerful man in the world.

The result was a historic landmark in black America’s struggle from

slavery and segregation to finally achieving civil rights leader Martin
Luther King Jr’s ‘dream’ when Americans of all colours and creeds would
vote a black man into the White House.

Few years ago, at 45, he was a rising Democratic star. But he had only
two years in U.S. Senate and no other national political experience.
Former first lady Hillary Clinton, with six years in the Senate and
support from many established party figures, was the clear favourite.

89
And America - a nation torn apart by race during the Civil War and
haunted by the gruesome memories of slavery - had never elected a
black president.

But a well-oiled campaign operation, a hugely successful fund-raising

effort, charisma and even luck have pushed Obama to victory in this
election against Republican rival John McCain. With a calm demeanor,
soothing baritone and an idealistic message focusing on hope and
bridging partisan divides, Obama has a steely intensity that opponents,
including Clinton and McCain, have tended to underestimate.

While amassing a $600 million war chest that shattered all fund-raising
records and establishing a big network of grass-roots volunteers,
Obama put together a staff known for its discipline and lack of leaks. He
racked up endorsements from high-profile figures such as talk show
host Oprah Winfrey; former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker;
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of slain President John F. Kennedy, and
more recently, former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In 22 months on the campaign trail, he walked a fine line, presenting

himself to America as a fresh face and an outsider - but with the
knowledge and mettle needed for the White House. He has rallied huge
crowds with inspiring words and vows to bring change to the calcified
ways of Washington, even as critics have tried to cast him as a
celebrity whose oratorical sizzle conceals a thin CV.

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But in a series of debates - including three with Mr McCain - Mr Obama
proved adept and skilled at answering questions and offering proposals
about health care, the financial bailout and Iraq, among other issues.

And his approach to dealing with the Wall Street meltdown earned a
much ballyhooed endorsement from Colin Powell, the former
Republican secretary of state. Throughout his campaign, Obama has
talked about defining moments - from his victory in Iowa to the day five
gruelling months and 53 contests later when he won enough delegates
to claim the Democratic nomination.

Barack Obama’s early childhood and adolescence indicate he had a

pretty comfortable life, with no real hardship and there is nothing to
suggest that he grew up fighting insurmountable odds. He is also an
alumnus of the prestige Harvard School, which shows he received a
fantastic education. However the fact remains that there had never
been an African American President of the United States, and few
people would have dared predict a victory for Obama when he
announced he was running for President. The manner in which he
conducted himself in the Presidential Campaign and swept to power in
the Presidential race of 2008, comfortably beating rival John McCain of
the Republican Party, created a huge surge of emotion in the United
States. People listened in rapt attention to his speeches and were glued
to their television sets for the televised Presidential Debate, where he
squared off against McCain. Undoubtedly his rise to the most powerful
position in the World, against all odds and keeping in mind the civil

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strife and racism that America has had to deal with over the years, is
truly motivating and inspiring.

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 CONCLUSION

Motivation helps you reach for the stars else you go nowhere….You
Decide!

How you objectify Motivation is up to you. That event, person or object

holds our constant attention driving us to higher levels of effort, to
reach our ultimate goal. The path is strewn with many difficulties but it
is mental strength which helps to overcome these obstacles and move
on. This constant effort towards achievement of our goals feeds our
desire to constantly put more efforts with every passing day week
month and year. This eternal drive to succeed is fuelled by motivation.
The individual has to decide how to keep this flame burning till his or
her last breath.

One thing we have to keep in mind, our goals keep changing as we

progress ahead on this beautiful journey called Life.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites:
www.wikipedia.org

http://www.motivation-for-dreamers.com/self-motivation-tips.html

http://www.youngmotivators.com

Articles:
www.oppapers.com

Books:
http://books.google.co.in/

Think and Grow Rich -Napoleon Hill

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey

Unlimited Power -Tony Robbins

Awaken the Giant within -Tony Robbins

Change your Thoughts-Change your Life -Wayne Dyer

Eat that Frog: 21 Ways to Stop Procrastinating -Brian Tracy

See You at the Top -Zig Ziglar

Audio tapes by:

Brian Tracy

Zig Ziglar

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/

BARACK OBAMA: MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

Motivational Video - Overcoming Adversity

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