Re: Motivation - Update - 2 quick comments
Dick wrote:<And it's at times like those that the differential motivator is
money.>
Money can make you come to work, but not necessarily feel good about your
work. Therefore, it is not a "proper" motivator (according to Herzberg's
theory).
Hmmm. Interesting. I don't know who Herzberg is or how he has narrowed the definition of _motivator_ for technical purposes. I was using the word in its standard English sense. But I should have been more careful. Money, of course, is not a motivator. The need to keep body and soul together, is a motivator. Money is just a means.
<It is not my boss's job to make me happy (and it sure as hell ain't my job
to make him happy). The job for both of us is to get the work done so the
company can have the revenue to pay our salaries. Does this corporation make
a positive difference in the world? Yes it does. Otherwise I'd be looking
for work elsewhere. But is it this company's purpose to make me want to come
to work every morning? No. The company pays me to come to work every
morning. The company's purpose is to return a profit to the shareholders.>
I cannot agree more with the statement about the purpose of a company. By
doing our jobs with this purpose in mind, we help the company succeed. One
of the ways of doing this is by making your employees happy. This should be
an essential part of every good manager's job. Happy employees produce
better work, which in turn, increases customer satisfaction and leads to
increased volume of business with your company.
And I agree with you about that. In our company we take this concept seriously and do what we can to keep employees happy and motivated, for the reasons you suggest. But that theory is applied in terms of providing benefits and perks, budget permitting, doing our best to maintain a positive culture, etc. It is not applied in terms of requiring that managers assign a high priority to analyzing what can be done to make a particular person feel better about herself. Do managers listen? Yes. Consider? Yes. Mitigate? Where possible. But this is in the context of meeting the company's productivity goals, not in the context of making employees happier than they would otherwise be. The company has a good day if productivity and revenue goals are met. It cannot be said to have a good day if everybody walks out of the building at five o'clock whistling but no work got done.
Dick
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