ACADEMIA FORȚELPR TERESTRE „NICOLAE BĂLCESCU” SIBIU

MANAGEMENT IS NOTHING MORE THAN

MOTIVATIN OTHER PEOPLE

SLT. GHEORGHE Marius

ANUL I IO
 ACADEMIA FORȚELPR TERESTRE „NICOLAE BĂLCESCU” SIBIU

CUPRINS

1. INTRODUCTION
2. MOTIVATION
3. MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATING PEOPLE
4. EMPLOYEES ARE PEOPLE, NOT MACHINES
5. THE CHALLENGE OF MAINTAINING MOTIVATION
 ACADEMIA FORȚELPR TERESTRE „NICOLAE BĂLCESCU” SIBIU

INTRODUCERE

Managers are continually challenged to motivate a workforce to do

twothings. The first challenge is to motivate employees to work toward helping
the organization achieve its goals. The second is to motivate employees to work
toward achieving their own personal goals.
Meeting the needs and achieving the goals of both the employer and the
employee is often difficult for managers in all types of organizations. In health
care, however, this is often more difficult, in part as a result of the complexity of
healthcare organizations, but also as a function of the wide array of employees
who are employed by or work collaboratively with healthcare providers in
delivering and paying for care. The types of workers run the gamut from highly
trained and highly skilled technical and clinical staff members to relatively
unskilled workers. To be successful, healthcare managers need to be able to
manage and motivate this wide array of employees.

MOTIVATION

According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, a motive is

“something
(a need or desire) that causes a person to act.” Motivate, in turn, means “to
provide with a motive,” and motivation is defined as “the act or process of
motivating.” Thus, motivationis the act or process of providing a motive that
causes a person to take some action. In most cases motivation comes from
some need that leads to behavior that results in some type of reward when the
need is fulfilled. This definition raises a couple of basicquestions.
Rewards can take two forms. They can be either intrinsic/internal
rewards or extrinsic/external ones. Intrinsic rewards are derived from within
the individual. For a healthcare employee this could mean taking pride and
feeling good about a job well done (e.g., providing excellent patient care).
Extrinsic rewards pertain to rewards that are given by another person, such as
a healthcare organization giving bonuses to teams of workers when quality
and patient satisfaction are demonstrated to be exceptional.
 ACADEMIA FORȚELPR TERESTRE „NICOLAE BĂLCESCU” SIBIU

MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATING PEOPLE

Effective managers have the ability to motivate those they work with to behave
in a specific, goal-directed way. Motivation is defined as energizing, directing
and sustaining employee efforts.
Employees should be energized and excited about performing tasks. They
should be focused on doing what is important for the organization. Managers
want a sustained effort from their employees so that they work hard whether or
not the boss is present.
It is equally important that effective managers understand how to influence
people to perform specific behaviors and tasks they are likely to find mundane.
A manager needs to be able to persuade workers to stay with the organization.
Managers want workers to complete mundane tasks at times and always perform
at a high level and be a good organizational citizen.
With an effective motivational scheme in place, managers are much more likely
to retain the most talented workers and dissuade them from leaving and going to
a competitor.
There are factors that lead to differences in employee job performance. A good
manager needs to understand what causes those differences.
It is not unusual for two employees hired about the same time with similar skills
to provide different levels of contribution to the company. One might be
considered a star performer who meets quotas, does a great job on assignments
and is a pleasure to work with. The other worker may struggle with assignments
and meeting deadlines, has a negative attitude and causes problems.
Not all job performance deficits are caused by poor motivation. Performance is
actually a function of three things: ability, situation and effort.
Ability is applied in terms of the intellectual (using intelligence and reason to
solve problems), the social (being personable and outgoing) and the mechanical
(possessing the technical skills to do your job). We address situations in terms of
the work environment, the job design and specific task assignments. All three
can have a strong influence on success.
But having ability and setting up the right situation aren’t enough. Effort is
defined as a willingness to work hard; a worker or manager who asserts the
maximum effort demonstrates motivation, according to Crant.
The opposite is true for a worker who demonstrates a poor performance. It could
indicate a lack of ability, a poor managerial choice or the need for additional
training. In the case of a poor situation, greater managerial support is required
and managers need to create a more favorable situation as well as assign people
to positions where they will succeed. A lack of effort indicates a lack of
motivation.
 ACADEMIA FORȚELPR TERESTRE „NICOLAE BĂLCESCU” SIBIU

The human tendency is to blame people when they struggle, to assume they are
lacking motivation. In psychology the concept is known as Fundamental
Attribution Error, which is defined as the tendency to overemphasize personal
causes for behavior. Crant notes this can include describing someone as lazy or
assuming the person doesn’t care about their job based only on what you see,
rather than thinking about the situational causes of the behavior.
To help increase effort, managers are encouraged to try to influence the
motivational levels of employees through tools. You should consider the cause
of performance issues when diagnosing a problem. You also should address why
the employee is poorly motivated and develop some helpful motivational
techniques.

EMPLOYEES ARE PEOPLE, NOT MACHINES

Forming a team is not incompatible with each member feeling what they
are: an individual with all the factors that they bring day to day which contribute
to the results of the company, and who has specific skills and responsibilities.
The happiest and, therefore, most productive workers are those who feel
they are treated as individuals and whose company cares about them as people,
and not just merely machines on a production line.
Workers are people who have their own lives and situations, who become
ill, get married, have children, experience problems and unforeseen events, etc.
This is why it is important, within Human Resources management, to evaluate
all possible situations and try to strengthen those emotional bonds that affect the
worker feeling appreciated for who they are and what they bring and not just a
replaceable number, since in this way they will feel much more involved and be
willing to play more than just their part.   

THE CHALLENGE OF MAINTAINING MOTIVATION

Motivation is not just to be generated through techniques and conditions

that the worker can perceive as incentives within the company, but it must also
be maintained, and this can be a real challenge.  According to a Harvard
Business School study, 85% of employees lose their motivation after 6 months
and it has been shown that to achieve team motivation, it is essential the head of
the company believes in the importance of its benefits.
It is the team leader’s mission to ensure that their workers do not become
bored or demotivated, or feel undervalued.  They should transmit the company
values and ensure that the employees identify with these values; they should
 ACADEMIA FORȚELPR TERESTRE „NICOLAE BĂLCESCU” SIBIU

recognize their work, be flexible and generate confidence in each and every
member of the team. Ultimately, they should ensure that the employee is happy
to come to work for more than just financial reward.     
Do you want to increase your company’s productivity?  Motivate your
staff.