In his video Mulholland (2011)
talked about three things that should motivate a person in their job and the
money isn’t one of them. The three
things he pointed out were to give interesting work, expand ones skill set and
recognize them. He also made a point to
say that if the first two happen then it shouldn’t be difficult to find reasons
for the third. I would have to say that
I agree with Mulholland. If my job is
routine and uneventful I would not be able to do it very long. I need to have something that is stimulating
as well as thought provoking to keep me moving through the course of a
day. I also need to continually widen my
knowledge as well as my abilities.
Without this where would the job lead? I could not function in a spot
where I was never going to either move up and take on new challenges or learn
new things. The third motivator is a big
one for me, recognition. From both an
employee and a leaders perspective nothing makes me more upset than when a
person who is generally underperforming is recognized for the one thing they
did well while a high achieving employee is overlooked simply because they
always do well. To me this sends the
wrong message to employees. It tells
them that if they perform poorly the majority of the time they will eventually
be recognized the one time they actually do the job they are expected to
do.
People can find jobs that pay them
anywhere, it’s the way the job makes them feel that keeps them their. Whether it’s the on the job benefits we saw
at SAS or the interest and support shown by a boss, its usually the atmosphere
that makes or breaks a job for an employee.
It comes down to what Whetten and Cameron (2011) call extrinsic and
intrinsic outcomes. They define
extrinsic outcomes as being controlled by others while internal outcomes are controlled
by the individual. Motivation either
comes from within a person or from external pressure, positive or negative. I agree with this concept but often wondered
which is the better motivator. Whetten
and Cameron (2011) stated that no matter how many externally controlled rewards
are offered if a person finds their job uninteresting or unsatisfying then
performance will suffer. I would have to
agree with that also.
Coming from my recent job where the
external benefits were great: free ski passes, free lesson, free rentals, I
could not move past the poorly run management.
I loved my job and the people who worked under me, but the lack of
support and feedback got to be too much to handle. As a result I would have to say that having a
supportive and knowledgeable leadership above me would have a huge impact on my
motivation. Where internal factors can
drive a person to stay at a job I feel the external ones will end up pushing
employees away.
Mulholland, A. (2011). The Three Things We Work For (Money
Isn't One of Them).
Retrieved September 2, 2015.
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S.
(2011). Developing Management Skills (E. Svendsen
Ed. 8th ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
No comments:
Post a Comment