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The Nuts & Bolts of Motivation
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In This Issue.
In this issue of the Mind Tools newsletter, we take a look at the key theories behind motivation in our article "The Nuts and Bolts of Motivation".
This shows you how the current understanding of motivation has come about, so that you can clearly distinguish old and out-of-date motivational approaches from those needed for success in today's complex workplace.
We then look at Value Chain Analysis, a useful tool for understanding what really matters to your customers, whether inside or outside your organization. This can make a critical difference to your success in your job.
And we review one of Mind Tools' "old favorites", our article on Thought Awareness and its role in stress management.
As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of the Mind Tools newsletter and encourage you to continue to send us your thoughts, suggestions and comments. And as ever, if you find these articles useful, please share the newsletter with your team and your co-workers.
Best wishes, and enjoy this issue!
James & Kellie
The Nuts & Bolts
of Motivation
Part 2 of a 3-part
series on Motivation
By: Kellie Fowler
In the last issue of this newsletter, we started to look at motivation. We concluded that what were once considered the chief motivators, including punishment and monetary reward, are no longer the most effective means of motivating people. Instead, people today want jobs where there achievements are recognized and where they feel valued for their contribution.
In this second part of the three-part series, we take a closer look at the theories behind motivation, giving concise overviews of each: this will give you a deeper understanding of the subject. This is important, because there are several different ideas, all of which have some element of truth, but which have different value in different situations.
If we’re to understand the current view of motivation, we need to understand its history. This is important, because ideas have changed radically over the last 70 years. Approaches that might have been valid in the mid-20th Century have been turned on their head as society has changed and the workplace has become less paternalistic.
Early ideas owed much to animal experimentation. Researchers saw that rats would learn certain behaviors when rewarded with food, and would avoid other behaviors when punished. These experiments, and the success of this approach in animal training, led psychologists to extend these ideas to humans. This is why so much of traditional motivational practice has focused on reward and punishment.
Now, we’re not saying that these approaches are always wrong, however what we do say is that in most cases, humans are more sophisticated than this.
If we reflect on what has been true for ourselves in the past, we find that such approaches often seemed crude and sterile: Yes, money’s important and we want to be well-rewarded. And yes, people don't like to be punished. But most of us are ultimately more motivated by the experience of achievement, the feeling of self-growth, and a passion for our work.
The old-fashioned reward/punishment approach started to lose ground in the 1950s with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and McGregor’s Factor X/Y Theory. These were followed by two more theories which further changed our views: Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory and Expectancy Theory. We’ll look at these now:
Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was significant in that it established
that humans have a range of different needs that they seek to satisfy.
Importantly, Maslow grouped these needs together into levels. The most basic level level starts with the physiological need for food, water and shelter. This is followed by security and social needs. Maslow believed that the higher level needs, such as self-esteem and self-fulfillment, could only be met after the lower level needs had been satisfied.
The diagram below shows Maslow’s Hierarchy:
(If you can't see this, visit http://www.mindtools.com/pages/Newsletters/07Apr05.htm and view it online)
These levels are explained below:
Level
1 - Body/Physiology:
This level represents the basic things you need to stay alive. It includes
needs like having enough food, water and shelter to survive.
Level
2 – Security:
Level 2 represents safety and security – the need to be safe from
physical and psychological harm in the present and future. This includes
the need to feel secure in one’s job.
Level
3 – Belonging, Social:
This level stands for the need to feel a valued member of one's team,
and the need to enjoy good relationships with the people around you.
Level
4 - Self-Esteem:
Level 4 corresponds to a feeling of self-respect and self-acceptance,
and encompasses the need for recognition and the desire to feel important.
Level
5 – “Self-Actualization”:
Level 5 represents the idea of “Self-Actualization” –
an unhelpful term that Maslow explained as doing the thing you were
born to do. This represents the need for self-fulfillment, and
the desire to realize your full potential and become the best you can
be.
The idea with Maslow’s Hierarchy is that people progress from level to level: Once someone’s needs for security are met, they are then motivated by the search for belonging. And once they feel they belong, they are motivated by self-esteem.
Now this has strong intuitive appeal, and some element of truth within it. And as a general approach, it reminds us that if we want to motivate people, we have to address all these different levels of need.
However, do not stick too rigidly to this hierarchy:
- In reality, people don't work through these levels one-at-a-time - they are much less structured in the way they satisfy their needs;
- Different people with different cultural backgrounds and in different situations may have different hierarchies of need; and
- Other researchers believe that other needs are more significant (for example, David McClelland identified needs for achievement, affiliation and power, which he noted were of different importance to different people.)
McGregor’s
Factor X/Y Theory
Shortly after Maslow published his hierarchy of needs, Douglas McGregor
published his Factor X/Y Theory. McGregor noted that managers generally
had two beliefs about employees and their attitudes toward their job:-
- Theory X, by which managers assume that the majority of employees dislike work, and would be idle if they could be: Because of this, employees need to be closely managed; and
- Theory Y, which assumes that happy employees will work hard, seek responsibility and show initiative without the need for much supervision.
McGregor’s Factor X/Y Theory taps into the age-old wisdom that a happy employee is a better performer and will be more motivated, concluding that a constructive working environment is key to motivational success.
While Theory Y will be truer in some cases than others, in many cases Theory X management destroys motivation, while Theory Y management unlocks strong performance. In saying this, we return to the “equation” we used in the first article:
Job performance = ability x motivation
Now, stop and ask yourself how you think about your co-workers and your team. When you think about them as individuals, one-by-one, which of the two approaches would you use to manage each one?
Most likely you’ll end up with a mixture of approaches, and probably a few people who sit in between the two extremes. However, if you find you tend more towards Theory X than Theory Y, then you probably need to take ideas of motivation much more seriously: Think of it as a great opportunity to improve the productivity of your team.
Now, this broad approach was taken much further by Frederick Herzberg, who we talked about in the last article:
Herzberg’s
Motivation-Hygiene Theory
Frederick Herzberg, a well-respected researcher who closely studied
the sources of employee motivation in the 1950s and 1960s, produced
great work on job satisfaction and employee satisfaction. This is an
important part of the foundation on which most successful motivation
efforts are now built.
As Herzberg determined, the factors that contribute to job satisfaction and motivation are different from those that contribute to dissatisfaction.
You may remember Herzberg's argument that increasing wages does little more than motivate employees to seek the next wage increase. His works showed that the factors that determine job satisfaction (and serve to motivate) are “separate and distinct from the factors that lead to job dissatisfaction.” Hence, the opposite of job satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction, but rather no job satisfaction. Conversely, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not job satisfaction, but no job dissatisfaction. This is a bit of a mouthful!
Herzberg’s “Hygiene Factors” (the things that make us unhappy and demotivated) are obstructive company policy, unhelpful administration, intrusive supervision, bad working relationships, poor conditions, uncompetitive salaries, low status and job insecurity. By fixing these problems you can get rid of much demotivation and unhappiness, but you will not build high motivation.
To start motivating people, these demotivating factors need to be controlled. But then to build real motivation, you need to give opportunities for and recognize achievement; provide intrinsically rewarding work; and give opportunities for responsibility, growth and advancement.
Expectancy Theory
Expectancy Theory is the other major pillar of the modern approach to
motivation. This focuses on building a strong link between the effort
that people put in, and the achievement of goals and outcomes that are
desirable for both the individual and the organization. The belief here
is that where employees are confident that hard work will generate good
outcomes, employees will want to work hard.
Building this link between effort and outcome is a two stage process:
- Firstly, a link needs to be made between high effort and high performance. In some cases this will be easy and self-evident, but in others it will involve training and coaching while someone is brought “up to speed”;
- Secondly, managers need to build a link between high performance and good outcomes.
Where both of these hold true, then the hard work:good outcome link is created.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the world is not always like this – factors outside hard work (such as inferior resources and plain bad luck) can break this link.
Expectancy theory implies that in this case a manager must be careful to nurture the linkage. Where an employee has failed despite intense hard work, the manager must take care to explain the external factors that caused failure, and should absolve the employee of any serious blame. Conversely, where an employee has been successful while still being idle, the manager reinforces the link either by showing that other factors contributed to the positive outcome, or by pointing out how much more successful things would have been if the employee had worked hard.
At one level, this can be seen as manipulative.
However at another level, it speaks to very fundamental human drives for order and predictability and for fair reward to be expected for fair effort.
A Final Note
While the above explanations of motivation theories is admittedly dry, we have used these to provide a better understanding of some of the most important ideas in motivation. I hope we’ve also helped you to see both the value of these ideas and their limitations.
I also hope we’ve also been able to show you that different approaches work for different people.
Look for the final article of our in-depth series on motivation ("A Manager's Motivational Survival Guide") in the next edition of the Mind Tools newsletter. This will offer more practical advice and will give tips and techniques for motivating your team.
Value
Chain Analysis:
Achieving Excellence in the Things That Really Matter
by James
Manktelow
Why
use the tool?
Value Chain Analysis is a useful tool for working out how you can create
the greatest possible value for your customers.
In business, we’re paid to take raw inputs, and to “add
value” to them by turning them into something of worth to other
people. This is easy to see in manufacturing, where the manufacturer
“adds value” by taking a raw material of little use to the
end-user (for example, wood pulp) and converting it into something that
people are prepared to pay money for (e.g. paper). But this idea is
just as important in service industries, where people use inputs of
time, knowledge, equipment and systems to create services of real value
to the person being served - the customer.
And remember that your customers aren’t necessarily outside your organization: they can be your bosses, your co-workers, or the people who depend on you for what you do. Or all of these people could be your customers in one way or another, just as long as they (directly or indirectly) pay your wages.
Now, this is really important: In most cases, the more value you create, the more people will be prepared to pay a good price for your product or service, and the more they will they keep on buying from you. On a personal level, if you add a lot of value to your team, you will excel in what you do. You should then expect to be rewarded in line with your contribution.
So how do you find out where you, your team or your company can create value?
This is where the “Value Chain Analysis” tool is useful. Value Chain Analysis helps you identify the ways in which you create value for your customers, and then helps you think through how you can maximize this value: whether through superb products, great services, or jobs well done.
Note: |
How to use the tool:
Value Chain Analysis is a three-step process:
- Activity Analysis: Firstly, you identify the activities you undertake to deliver your product or service;
- Value Analysis:Secondly, for each activity, you think through what you would do to add the greatest value for your customer; and
- Evaluation and Planning: Thirdly you evaluate whether it is worth making changes, and then plan for action.
We follow these through one-by-one:-
1.
Activity Analysis:
The first step to take is to brainstorm the activities that you, your
team or your company undertakes that in some way contribute towards
your customer’s experience.
At an organizational level, this will include the step-by-step business processes that you use to serve the customer – Michael Porter calls these “Primary Activities”. These will include marketing of your products or services; sales and order-taking; operational processes; delivery; support; and so on (this will may also involve many other steps or processes specific to your industry).
At a personal of team level, it will involve the step-by-step flow of work that you carry out.
But this will also involve other things as well (Porter’s “Support Activities”). For example:-
- How you recruit people with the skills to give the best service;
- How you motivate yourself or your team to perform well;
- How you keep up-to-date with the most efficient and effective techniques;
- How you select and develop the technologies that give you the edge; and
- How you get feedback from your customer on how you’re doing, and how you can improve further.
Tip: |
Once you’ve brainstormed the activities which add value for your company, list them. A useful way of doing this is to lay them out as a simplified flow chart running down the page – this gives a good visual representation of your “value chain”. You can see an example of this in figure 1 below.
2.
Value Analysis:
Now, for each activity you’ve identified, list the “Value
Factors” - the things that your customers’ value in the
way that each activity is conducted.
For example, if you’re thinking about a telephone order-taking process, your customer will value a quick answer to his or her call; a polite manner; efficient taking of order details; fast and knowledgeable answering of questions; and an efficient and quick resolution to any problems that arise.
If you’re thinking about delivery of a professional service, your customer will most likely value an accurate and correct solution; a solution based on completely up-to-date information; a solution that is clearly expressed and easily actionable; and so on.
Next to each activity you’ve identified, write down these Value Factors.
And next to these, write down what needs to be done or changed to provide great value for each value factor.
3.
Evaluate Changes and Plan for Action:
By the time you've completed your Value Analysis, you’ll probably
be fired up for action: you’ll have generated plenty of ideas
for increasing the value you deliver to customers. And if you could
deliver all of these, your service could be fabulous!
Now be a bit careful at this stage: you could easily fritter your energy away on a hundred different jobs, and never really complete any of them.
So firstly, pick out the quick, easy, cheap wins – go for some of these, as this will improve your team's spirits no end.
Then screen the more difficult changes. Some may be impractical. Others will deliver only marginal improvements, but at great cost. Drop these.
And then prioritize the remaining tasks and plan to tackle them in an achievable, step-by-step way that delivers steady improvement at the same time that it keeps your team’s enthusiasm going.
Tip: |
Example:
Lakshmi is a software development manager for a software house. She
and her team handle short software enhancements for many clients. As
part of a team development day, she and her team use Value Chain Analysis
to think about how they can deliver excellent service to their clients.
During the Activity Analysis part of the session, they identify the following Primary Activities that create value for clients:
- Order taking
- Enhancement specification
- Scheduling
- Software development
- Programmer testing
- Secondary testing
- Delivery
- Support
Lakshmi also identifies the following Support Activities as being important:
- Recruitment: Choosing people who will work well with the team
- Training: Helping new team members become effective as quickly as possible, and helping team members learn about new software, techniques and technologies as they are developed.
Lakshmi marks these out in a vertical value chain on her whiteboard (you can see the first three Primary Activities shown in the “Step 1: Activity Analysis” box in Figure 1 below):
Click here for Figure 1
Next, she and her team focus on the Order Taking process, and identify the factors that will give the greatest value to customers as part of this process. They identify the following Value Factors:
- Giving a quick answer to incoming phone calls;
- Having a good knowledge of the customer’s business, situation and system, so that they do not waste the customer’s time with unnecessary explanation;
- Asking all the right questions, and getting a full and accurate understanding of the customer’s needs; and
- Explaining the development process to the customer and managing his or her expectations as to the likely timetable for delivery.
You can see these in the “Value Factors” column of figure 1.
They then look at what they need to do to deliver the maximum value to the customer. These things are shown in the Figure 1’s “Changes Needed” column.
They then do the same for all other processes.
Once all brainstorming is complete, Lakshmi and her team may be able to identify quick wins, reject low yield or high cost options, and agree their priorities for implementation.
Key
points:
Value Chain Analysis is a useful way of thinking through the ways in
which you deliver value to your customers, and reviewing all of the
things you can do to maximize that value.
It takes place as a three stage process:
- Firstly with Activity Analysis, where you identify the activities that contribute to the delivery of your product or service;
- Secondly with Value Analysis, where you identify the things that your customers value in the way you conduct each activity, and then work out the changes that are needed; and
- Thirdly with Evaluation and Planning, where you decide what changes to make and plan how you will make them.
By using Value Chain Analysis and by following it through to action, you can achieve excellence in the things that really matter to your customers.
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Tool
Reviewed – Thought Awareness
Reducing Stress by Managing Your Thinking
If you stop and think about some of the more stressful times or situations in your life, you might conclude that much of the stress you felt was tied into your perception of the situation at that particular time.
Could it be that you were unduly harsh with yourself or that you jumped to a wrong conclusion?
Regardless of how you now view the cause of your past stresses, you will surely agree that these stressful times/situations often cause you to think more negatively or irrationally than you do normally.
You should know that how stressed you allow yourself to become is directly related to the amount of damage or harm you perceive that a situation/problem can inflict on you, and how closely your resources meet the demands of the situation/problem.
The good news here is that you have the ability to change your perception, which allows you to better control your stress. While this does not mean hiding from a situation/problem or viewing it unrealistically, it does mean you can work to control your thoughts, keep them positive, stay focused and know you are capable of dealing with what’s at hand.
On the flip side of this, negative thinking not only undermines your self-confidence, hinders performance and paralyzes mental skills, it can actually cause you bodily harm by prompting unwanted, damaging physical reactions.
As is pointed out on the Mind Tools website, you are thinking negatively and causing yourself related harm any time you fear the future, put yourself down, criticize yourself for errors, doubt your abilities or expect failure.
To combat negative thoughts and stress, you can rely on a process called Thought Awareness, during which you take the time to actually observe your own thoughts, stepping back for a minute or two to become more aware of what you are thinking and what you are telling yourself about these thoughts.
You can try observing your stream of consciousness as you think about the stressful situation. Do not suppress any of your thoughts: Allow your thoughts to flow freely without interruption while you observe and write them down.
You can also log your stressors into your Stress Diary (which benefits you by allowing you to log the stressors in your life for a week or two).
While Thought Awareness is the first step to better combating negative thoughts, Rational Thinking provides a good second step by actually challenging the negative thoughts that you identified through Thought Awareness.
To do this, look at every negative thought you wrote down and rationally challenge it. Now, ask yourself if the thought is reasonable and/or rational. Do you actually have good evidence to back it up? Or are you making unfair suppositions or judgments about yourself that you wouldn’t dream of applying to other people?
This allows you to quickly see whether the damaging thoughts are wrong or, if in fact, they have substance. If the latter is the case, take appropriate action.
Where you have used Rational Thinking to identify incorrect thinking, you may find it useful to follow-up with rational positive thoughts and affirmations to counter it.
Affirmations help build self-confidence. By basing you affirmations on clear, rational assessments of facts that you made using Rational Thinking, you can use them to undo the damage that negative thinking has done to your self-confidence.
You can also rely on the proven information in Mind Tools' Stress Management Masterclass to help you better learn how to cope with intense pressure, take back control over your workload, improve working relationships and live a happier, more relaxed life. The Mind Tools Stress Management Masterclass combines the latest psychological techniques with Mind Tools’ practical, proven approaches to personal effectiveness.
I hope you enjoy receiving the Mind Tools newsletter every two weeks as much as we enjoy putting it together for you. We have some exciting happenings going on at Mind Tools and are looking forward to rolling these out to our newsletter audience first.
In our next issue we’ll look at the last part of our three article series on motivation: “A Manager’s Motivational Survival Guide”. This will given you practical, proven tools that you can use to motivate your co-workers and your team.
In our last issue we talked about the upcoming review of "The Enthusiastic Employee" by David Sirota, Louis A. Muschkind and Michael Irwin Meltzer. We decided to miss it out from this issue because otherwise this newsletter would be much, much too long. We will, however, review it in our next issue: it fits in well with the theme of motivation, as it uses solid research to provide information on what motivates and de-motivates employees, shows readers what employee morale means, and offers advice for managers looking to make the greatest positive performance impact.
And we’ll look again at Reading Strategies: Essential for overcoming the information overload that plagues so many people.
And
please remember, we’re keen that you share these newsletters with
your co-workers and your team – please feel free to forward it
to them to stimulate discussion.
Best wishes, and until next time!
James & Kellie
James Manktelow & Kellie Fowler
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