Motivation in practice

1. Financial methods or rewards of motivation

Wage: is financial reward given against human effort
i. Time rate/hourly wage rate method… a fixed payment is paid to a
worker against each hour worked
Where output is not measurable …. Tertiary sector
Advantages:
It’s applicable where output is not measurable …. Car garage
Workers will not ignore the standards … equally goods and
qualitative … no risk of wastage … less or even no customer
complaints
Disadvantages:
Some workers may get discouraged especially those who are
highly productive
To gain more wages worker sometimes may prolong the work
ii. Piece rate … a given amount is paid to worker for each unit
produced
Where output is measurable… manufacturing industry
Advantages:
Encourages human effort
Unit cost known may help the firm to set prices
Disadvantages:
May lead to falling quality… customer complaint rates… bad
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Provided little or even no security unlike Salary
Workers don’t like change
Workers may want to achieve target pay
It’s not applicable where output is not measure able such as
teaching
Overtime payment: if a workers works over and above the minimum
working week duration then s/he will be paid a higher wage rate … helping
the worker to earn his/her target income
2. Salary
A fixe annual income given to a permanent staff in twelve equal
installments
Advantages:
Secure income
Linked to status
Helps in costing
Suitable for workers where work is not measurable
Suitable for management (unpredictable and unsocial working hours)
Depends on worker experience, qualifications and progress
Disadvantages:
Income is not directly related to human effort/productivity
May lead to complacency … lazy and they may not learn new skills
Regular appraisal essential and time consuming task… opportunity cost
3. Commission
A payment to a sales staff against each sale made… generally a fixed
percentage is given to the sales staff against each sale made

Advantages:
Encourages human effort
Disadvantages:
May lead to falling quality… customer complaint rates… bad
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Provided little or even no security unlike Salary
Workers may want to achieve target pay … stress
4. Performance related pay (PRP)
A bonus scheme to reward a staff for above average performance
It is mostly given in cash form as a percentage on workers basic wage
Advantages:
Staff motivated to improve performance
Target setting importance
Disadvantages:
It may not motivate staff if workers are not driven by financial rewards
Team spirit can be damaged… not developing ‘to think win win’
Could be subject to claims of manager favoritism
May push conformity rather than innovation
Profit sharing/Bonus
A bonus for staff based on the profits of the business usually paid as
proportion of basic salary.
Advantages
Attract better recruits
Does not add to costs
Should lead to greater effort/cost reduction
Could lead to increased profitability
Disadvantages
Reward may not be related to individual effort
Can be costly to operate … OC
Small profits may de-motivate
Shareholders may not happy as their dividends will reduce… it may reduce
investment
6. Fringe Benefits/Perks:
Rewards given to workers over and above their wages such as medical
allowances, insurance schemes, children fee, company car, foreign
holidays etc
Advantages:
Provide benefits that employees might not otherwise have
May be low cost method (health insurance)
Disadvantages:
Unlikely to be as important as other methods of financial rewards
May have tax implications
It adds cost … reduces profits

2. Non-financial methods of motivation

The following are the methods used by managers and or firms to motivate
their employees without increasing their pay only
i. Job rotation
ii. Job enlargement
iii. Job enrichment
iv. Job redesign
v. Training
vi. Quality circles
vii. Worker participation
viii. Team-working
ix. Target setting
x. Delegation
xi. Empowerment
Job rotation:
It creases the flexibility of workforce and variety of work they do by
switching from one job to another.
Work is almost of same level … same skills are needed
Rotation to reduce monotony and boredom
Flexible work at different time interval to make the work more interesting
Advantage:
Reduces boredom and monotony as work is more flexible
Gives worker new skills
Disadvantages:
Increased workload
Organisational problems
Job enlargement
It attempts to increase the scope of a job by broadening (or deepening) the
tasks undertaken… expanding the job horizontally
Characteristics:
Level of responsibility increased,
Level of authority remain same… designation is same
In short, it means taking charge of more duties and responsibilities which
are not mentioned in the job description
Advantages
Reduces boredom and monotony as worker are assigned new tasks to
perform
Gives worker new skills…. a little scope for learning
Multi-talented … you can gain the maximum by engaging worker at his/her
full potential
Disadvantages:
Increased workload…stress level will increase
Mismanagement may occur
Job enrichment
Involves the principle of organizing work so that employees are
encouraged and allowed to use their full abilities – not just their physical
effort … in other words it is about organizing work so that workers are
encouraged to use their full abilities. In short… expanding job vertically
Characteristics:
New learning … the challenging tasks are assigned
Unique experience
Direct feedback
Client relationships
Scheduling own work
Control over resources
Authority
Herzberg gave this idea of job enrichment which has three key features:
1. Complete unit of work so the worker contribution can be identified and
work must be challenge… cell production … give your worker an
interesting job to perform
2. Direct feedback on performance to allow each worker to have an
awareness of their own progress…. Two way communication
3. Must give the worker range of challenging tasks to perform which that
worker has never done before… gain new skills and qualifications … status
and recognition as said by Maslow
Advantages:
Less supervision
Workers have complete units tasks to perform
Workers have more responsibility
Challenging…. Interesting
It provided a sense of accomplishment
Creates a positive and better working environment
Disadvantages:
Not easy to apply
Workers may not respond well
May be seen as threatening jobs
More work but same pay
Job redesign
It involves the restructuring of a job – usually with employees’
involvement and agreement… to make the job more interesting, satisfying
and challenging. In other words, it is an effort where job roles and
responsibilities are reviewed and possibly reallocated among staff, to
improve output. It can lead to improvement in both productivity and job
satisfaction. There are three ways a manager can redesign an employee's job:
job enrichment, job enlargement and job rotation. For instance, promoting O
level Economics teacher to senior advanced level Economics teacher
Advantages:
Linked to job enrichment
Can lead to improved recognition
Allow introduction of team working
More skills, better promotion chances
Disadvantages
Difficult to implement
May be seen as a threat
Training is work related education to improve workers’ skill and
performance
Quality circles
A Japanese style where voluntary groups of workers meet regularly to
discuss work-related problems and issues
Advantages:
Good for finding solutions
Involves participation
Disadvantages:
Time consuming process
Costly
Needs support and management and employees
Worker participation
Workers are actively encouraged to become involved in decision making
within the organisation
Advantages:
More valued … participation in decision making
Job enrichment
More responsibility
Disadvantages
Time consuming
Not suited to some styles of management such as autocratic style of
management
Team-working
Production is organized so that groups of workers undertake complete unit
of work
Advantages:
Better motivation
Makes better use of talents
Can reduce costs
Complete tasks can be allocated
Disadvantages:
Time consuming
Not everyone can be a good team member
Training costs
Target setting
Where worker are given pre-set target – must meet the SMART criteria
Advantages:
Related to MBO
Sense of motivation
Disadvantage:
Bureaucratic … close supervision
Delegation
Passing down the authority to someone lower down in the hierarchy
Empowerment
It seeks to give an employee more authority with the aim of developing
employee commitment, enthusiasm and expertise, while encouraging
innovation that will benefit the whole organisation over time.