sábado, 18 de dezembro de 2010

Principles of Motivation

Motivation is everyone's preferred choice as a way to change the behavior or performance of problem employees. The principles of effective motivation were spelled out in the 1960s by Frederick Herzberg. He found that "extrinsic" incentives such as bigger paychecks and plush offices don't necessarily make people work harder os smarter. Even when they do, their positive effects are short-lived. Why? Because most of us are motivated by "intrinsic" rewards: interesting, challenging work and the opportunity to achieve and grow into greater responsability. These intrinsic factors answer people's deep-seated need for growth and achievement. Thus, the real key to motivating employees isn't praise, threats of punishment or even cash. The secret is finding ways to activate their internal generators. And for most people, that means making their jobs more interesting. He offered this advice about making jobs more interesting:

- Remove some controls while retaining accountability for results.

- Give a person a complete natural unit of work (module, division, area and so on) instead of a narrow, highly specified piece of a job.

- Make periodic reports directly available to workers themselves rather than only to supervisors.

- Introduce new and more difficult tasks.

- Assign specific or specialized tasks to individuals, enabling them to become experts.

Herzberg's prescription remains valid today and you can use it to enhance the motivation of all your subordinates. Nevertheless, poorly performing employees merit special attention. Motivating them is more difficult.

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