MIT School of Business Workplace Motivation Tips

Oct 17
08:06

2011

Steve Wilheir

Steve Wilheir

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There are two renowned theories about employee motivation that were demonstrated by McGregor. These theories are known as Theory X and Theory Y, where Theory X speaks of those employees who need to be actively controlled so as to get them to complete their assigned tasks. These employees are those who are not ambitious enough to want to complete the task on their own and thus needs an extra push.

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Motivation is the key factor to achieve your goals. Different motivation techniques are employed and as a result,MIT School of Business Workplace Motivation Tips Articles people go for performance. McGregor' X and Y theories categorize people into hardworking and lazy ones. Theory Y categories are dedicated and more responsible and they concentrate on achieving their targets. Theory Y people are conscientious and self-motivated.

Disinterested and uncommitted employees can present tremendous difficulties to companies or organizations. Low-quality workers create low-quality products which tend to be disliked by consumers; this might cause the company great losses. Being valued and understood will boost the confidence of employees, so it is the company's job to make sure they feel this way.

A manager with good bonding skills with workers can greatly influence the ability of a teams performance as a unit. A great example of this, explained by Theory Y, is that it can be similar to how a family works, like how a child is cared and looked out for by their parents.

According to Douglas McGregor, if a manager believes in the philosophy of Theory X, he wouldn't be too wise and would not cherish the function done by the employees. He would practice extreme measures like firing an employee in response to irresponsible work performed.

To accomplish its goals, an organization has to ensure that its employees are effectively and efficiently engaged within the organization and for this, motivation is a key factor. Today, increasing employee productivity is on the main agenda of the activities carried out by different human resource departments. The human resources department consults with other departments in the organization and comes up with different motivational techniques. To clearly understand this, its close relation with performance needs to be understood first. If one looks closely at performance, one can observe that rather than work results, people seem to go for performance. We can say that an employee is motivated if he/she is willing to perform the work given to him. Motivation is concerned about the direction, persistence and the arousal that an employee may develop inside him to do the work assigned to him.

Hypothetically, any manager belonging to the Theory Y category is more inclined to offer more of a loose and free, friendly environment for the workers. The workers react positively to an environment such as this, and this style of work will, in turn, affect the profits in the company reports.

Optimally, a manager should consider the business perspectives of new employees and give them equal treatment. New employees provide fresh work techniques and ideas, which can greatly benefit companies. Doing this will also motivate employees by reassuring them that their opinion matters in addition to being good for the company's interest.

The term 'motivation' can be defined as a willingness to work for a way to fulfill a certain necessity. For instance, it can be said that the people who put in a great amount of effort to get money in order to buy food have motivation, as food is certainly a necessity

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