week 6: Motivation

Motivating and rewarding employees are one of the most important and one of the most challenging activities that managers perform. Successful managers, such as Angel Lorenzo, in our chapter-opening Manager's Dilemma, understand that what motivates them personally may have little or no effect on others. Just because you're motivated by being part of a cohesive work team, don't assume everyone is. Or just because you're motivated by challenging work doesn't mean that everyone is. Effective managers who want their employees to put forth maximum effort recognize that they need to know how and why employees are motivated and to tailor their motivational practices to satisfy the needs and wants of those employees.

Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organizational goals, conditioned by the effort's ability to satisfy some individual need. Although, in general, motivation refers to effort exerted toward any goal, we're referring to organizational goals because our focus is on work-related behavior. Three key elements can be seen in this definition: effort, organizational goals, and needs. We can say that motivated employees are in a state of tension. To relieve this tension, they exert effort. The greater the tension, the higher the effort level. If this effort leads to need satisfaction, it reduces tension. Because we're interested in work behavior, this tension-reduction effort must also be directed toward organizational goals.

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