To perform any activity, a person needs to want to perform actions, this is connected with the concept of motivation. The most important function of a manager is to motivate staff to work. To perform this important function, you need to understand what this process is. Let's see what the essence and functions of motivation for managing employees consist of.
Concept of motivation
Different authors interpret this phenomenon in their own way, focusing on various aspects. In general terms, the essence of motivation can be formulated as follows - this is the process of prompting a person (himself or another) to commit any actions. Moreover, motivation is not coercion, but the actualization of goals that become important for the motivated person. This psychological process is associated with important human needs and their satisfaction. The concept and essence of motivation is studied in various sciences: psychology, pedagogy, and management. Since the processes of managing people and influence on them are built on its basis.
Motivation in Psychology
This concept originates in the framework of psychology. It is defined as the process of regulating any activity. Without a motive to act, a person would not do anything at all, therefore nature has laid down this mechanism of “desire” in us. When a person has a need or desire, he is ready to do a lot, almost anything. Motivation is closely related to the needs and interests of people. Psychologists believe that motivation is based on biological and social needs.
The first group includes the need for food, water, sleep, safety, procreation. They are satisfied with people in the first place. The second group includes the needs for respect, communication, self-expression, belonging to a group, and self-realization. In social, sometimes spiritual needs are also distinguished. All human needs, according to A. Maslow, are presented in the form of a pyramid. A person first satisfies basic biological and social needs, and then proceeds to satisfy spiritual needs.
The material or objectified embodiment of need is a motive. It is he who plays a crucial role in the process of motivation. It represents a certain ideal object, on which the activity of an individual is directed. The motive is always associated with emotional experiences, it can be positive experiences - an anticipation of possession of this subject, or negative ones arising from dissatisfaction or inadequate satisfaction of a need.
Motivation can be represented in the form of the following chain: at the initial stage, a need arises, then a person decides how relevant it is and whether it is necessary to satisfy it. At the next stage, the individual is determined with the motive and purpose of the activity, builds a strategy for achieving the goal and performs actions. Getting rewarded in the form of pleasure or comfort. At the final stage, the person evaluates how fully and qualitatively the need was met, extracts experience that affects the following motivation.
Management motivation
In a slightly different way, the concept and essence of motivation are characterized in control theory. This process is defined as a combination of external and internal forces that prompt a person to an activity in which he achieves his own goals and the goals of the organization. Motivation in management is always associated not only with needs, but also with rewards. As a result of his efforts, a person should receive encouragement that allows him to satisfy various needs. In the framework of labor activity, motivation affects the intensity of efforts that a person spends on achieving a goal, on his perseverance in achieving a goal, on the quality of activity, on his conscientiousness. Thus, motivation in management is the most important task of the leader. He must create such conditions in which a person will link his own goals with those tasks that the organization faces.
Labor motivation
The manager should influence the staff in order to increase labor productivity, improve the quality of products. And his main tool in this impact on employees is motivation. In management, the essence of labor motivation is understood as satisfying the needs of employees by performing professional functions and solving production problems. This process has two sides. On the one hand, personnel should be able to satisfy their needs, otherwise they will not see the point of working, let alone working efficiently and productively. On the other hand, a personnel service specialist, a manager who seeks to increase labor productivity, can find the most rational and economical way to achieve the goals of the organization and for this he needs to deal with staff motivation, since the manager can achieve his goals only with the help of other people. The essence of motivation is that staff must fulfill the delegated authority in accordance with the goals of the organization. The structure of labor motivation includes:
- employee need;
- good that can satisfy this need;
- labor action that must be performed in order to gain good;
- moral and material costs associated with the performance of a labor action, that is, the price an employee pays to satisfy his needs, these may be skills, abilities, time.
Motivation Functions
The global goal of motivation is to influence staff with the help of incentive motives in order to increase the efficiency of labor and the entire management system of the organization. Also, the essence of labor motivation involves building a system of individual measures to encourage and stimulate employees to activate their work. The main functions of motivation are:
- Motivation for action. The emergence of a motive is always associated with the search for the desired program of action. A person who is active in meeting his needs is considered motivated, and an employee who is indifferent and passive is considered unmotivated.
- The direction of activity. There are always several ways to achieve any goal, it is motivation that determines the choice of the desired action of the employee, the optimal direction is the choice of the employee in favor of the diligent fulfillment of the tasks assigned to him.
- Monitoring and maintaining behavior. A person with a goal, i.e. motivated, perseverance and interest in its achievement. He systematically performs the necessary actions, and labor activity for him is dominant.
Meaningful Theories of Motivation
To understand the essence of the motivation process, a number of theories have been developed, some of which focus on the content component of this phenomenon. They are built on an understanding of need as the main factor in motivation. These theories study the features and types of needs, their impact on activities. As part of this approach, concepts have been developed:
- The hierarchy of needs A. Maslow. He believes that a person consistently satisfies his needs, from biological to self-fulfillment needs. At the same time, some people stop in their motivation at some level. Therefore, the Maslow model has a pyramidal shape.
- Theory of Acquired Needs D. McClelland. According to this theory, the motivation of a person to work is based on three types of needs: involvement, power and success.
- Two-factor model of F. Herzberg. He believed that a person has two groups of needs: hygienic, i.e. those that keep a person at work, and motivators, those that encourage him to work.
Procedural Theories of Motivation
From a different perspective, the essence of motivation is considered by scientists who offer a procedural approach. They make the main emphasis not on the content of the goal that the employee is striving for, but on the process of achieving it. This approach does not deny the importance of needs, but emphasizes the importance of the process of satisfying them. Within the framework of this approach, theories have been developed: the justice of J. Adams, the expectations of W. Vroom, X and Y of D. McGregor. All these theories emphasize that a person, upon reaching his goal, pays attention to how this process is organized, how powers, rewards and sanctions are distributed. For the management, which comprehends the essence of motivation in the organization, these theories have been very productive. In accordance with them, the organization of personnel motivation at enterprises is carried out. They perfectly explained the essence and content of motivation, and also made it possible to develop a set of measures to increase staff motivation.
Types of Motivation
In management, the essence of activity motivation is defined as a system of measures to increase the productivity of workers. And in this regard, there are several types of motivation:
- material, built on the basis of the application of methods of material incentives for employees;
- psychological, based on the use of human needs in belonging to a group, in respect, in recognition of its significance.
Also, the essence of motivation is revealed in the allocation of such subspecies as internal and external. Despite the fact that motives are difficult to separate by their place of origin, there is a tradition to divide motivation into one that is associated with external influence, these include salaries, orders of the leader, and internal, related to the psychological processes of a person: fear, desire for power cognition.
There is also the practice of highlighting the types of motivation for the tools used. In this case, we can talk about rationing, coercion and stimulation of staff.
Motivation factors
Despite the fact that motivation is an individual process, there are some universal reasons for its increase. So, based on an understanding of the essence of the motivation system as the most important component of an organization’s management, the following factors are identified for increasing staff motivation:
- Organization Status. People enjoy working in a well-known and prestigious company, for the status of the organization they are ready to work more and better.
- Interesting job. In the case when work gives a person pleasure, he likes it, he works with greater efficiency, strives for self-development and self-improvement, which positively affects labor productivity.
- The presence of material interest. Even the most interesting work should bring a person income, as this allows him to satisfy his urgent needs.
With a combination of all three factors, you can get the maximum involvement of personnel in the production process and build effective management at the enterprise.
Organization of staff motivation
Any company should think about how to increase employee motivation. Because the quality of their work and productivity is the secret to the success of the company. The essence of motivation is to constantly push a person to effective work. The complexity of this process lies in the fact that the methods of motivation may lose their effectiveness, so the motivation system in the organization must be constantly improved. A person quickly gets used to what he already has and ceases to perceive it as a motivating factor. For example, employees who regularly receive bonuses, without special criteria in equal amounts for everyone, begin to take this money for granted and do not make much effort to get it.
Motivation and stimulation
Often, everyday consciousness equalizes these concepts. This is due to the fact that the essence of motivation and stimulation is approximately the same and has a single goal - increasing labor productivity. But at the same time, motivation is the person’s internal conviction that one needs to work well, and stimulation is the external, motivating factors that push the person to work. Both tools should be used productively in the activities of the HR manager. Motivation is a more long-term phenomenon, for its formation a lot of time and resources are needed, but it also gives a long and high-quality result. Stimulation may be faster, but it gives a short-term effect.
Types of Incentives
Traditionally, the organization builds a system of employee motivation and uses methods to stimulate them. Traditionally emit material and non-material stimulation. The first is remuneration, consisting of a constant and a variable part. Since the employee quickly begins to take salary for granted, it is necessary to stimulate him to do better by paying extra money for special successes in work. Intangible methods of stimulation include various social programs (training, development, maintaining health and career growth) and various types of benefits. For example, an additional day off, the opportunity to come to work with your pet, holidays for employees and their families.