Challenges a Manager Faces in Motivating Employees

Motivating Today's Employees

With respect to motivating their workers, today's employers face different challenges than those of fifty years ago. Changes in the way business is conducted, an uncertain economic climate, new expectations of both employers and employees, and a growing and increasingly diverse workforce have made old rules and practices obsolete. Employers need fresh approaches to motivate employers in the 21st century.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that, given satisfaction with their financial compensation, employees are more motivated by non-monetary incentives rather than extra cash (Dewhurst, Gutheridge & Mohr). The economic crisis of the last several years has had a detrimental effect on the general morale of employees who may have legitimate concerns about job loss, cuts in benefits, reduced wages or hours, or failure to get raises or promotions. An economic downturn is precisely the time when organizations need their workers to be motivated and engaged, with the hope that former prosperity will be restored. It would seem that employers would not have to work too hard to motivate workers at a time when jobs are not plentiful. Nevertheless, employers seek ways to motivate and retain good workers. Among the various motivational theories that have been developed, those based on the Hawthorne Studies are likely to have the most relevance with respect to the current generation of college graduates and younger workers.

The Hawthorne Studies were initiated in 1924 to test the scientific management concept developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor. Over a nine-year period, workers were studied at a Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois. Taylor's concept was the prevailing management theory of the day; its basic premise was that there is a single best way for performing every job, and that this best way could be scientifically established (Gautschi180).

The results of the Hawthorne Studies were surprising because worker morale and productivity improved regardless of whether changes in the workplace (e.g., work hours, rest periods) were positive or negative. Workers reported greater job satisfaction when they felt as though they belonged to a group and could be part of discussions and decision-making processes. The conclusion of the studies seem obvious nearly eighty years after they ended: people are more than merely programmable robots (Gautschi 180).

The youngest generation of today's workers places a high value on social interactions and the feeling of belonging. Modern technology enables young people to maintain connections with family, friends and co-workers twenty-four hours a day, if they so choose. Most do choose this intense level of interaction: According to last year's blogpost on Digital Buzz, more than a billion of the world's four billion cell phones are smart phones ("Digital Buzz"). This means that users can talk, text and even communicate face-to-face with video technology such as FaceTime and Skype. Users can access social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, where they can stay up-to-date on the activities of people they know. Many professionals use LinkedIn, and similar sites, to maintain a profile and, more importantly, connections with others.

According to one of the fundamentals of the Hawthorne Effect, individual workers cannot be treated in isolation but must be seen as members of a group. Today's workers may like to think of themselves as free-thinking individuals, but they also like to know they fit in with their peers. A second fundamental of the Hawthorne Effect holds that managers must be aware of employees' social needs and cater to them. The sense of belonging and fitting in, when fostered in the work environment, will help ensure employees collaborate with the official organization instead of working against it. Employees must encourage a sense of community and a feeling among workers that "we're all in this together."

The Economist reported the average number of "friends" in a Facebook network is 120 ("Economist"). While the quality of all these "friendships" is questionable -- research shows that the group of Facebook friends with whom an individual regularly and frequently interacts is actually quite small and stable. Nonetheless, to have a large number of "friends" has become an important measure for today's teens and twenty-somethings. This is a generation that has a great deal to say, and they like communicating their ideas within a group. These trends are important for today's managers to consider in motivating and retaining employees.

Three of the biggest challenges employers face with respect to today's workers include fostering a sense of belonging, making people feel as though they have some control over their work life, and fostering a supportive atmosphere in which workers can feel as though their contributions really matter. All of these challenges have a social component. To feel as though they belong, workers must feel they can communicate with superiors and with each other. As pointed out by Dewhurst, Gutheridege and Mohr (2009), today's workers are looking for praise and commendation from their immediate manager as well as attention from leaders.

In terms of controlling their work life, they must feel as though they have some say in the decision-making process. Dewhurst et al. further point out that today's workers are looking for opportunities to lead projects or task forces. Workers do not want to work independently; they want to be part of a team. Leadership creates the opportunity for team work and also for assuming that decision-making role.