How Important Is Motivation In The Workplace?

Question

How has being movtiated or not if the case may be effected you and the organisation?

Answer 1

its the key!

if your motivated and happy you do the work to the best of your ability instead of just doing it because you have to. Changes your attitude wich effects customer relations. If your motivated you can get more accomplished in a shorter amount of time, giving you more time to focus on other tasks as well. "Time is money"

etc. etc. etc.

Answer 2

Over the last twenty years or more there have been many surveys of employers here in the UK, asking what they consider to be important factors in recruitment of the right people. (I expect similar studies have taken place in the states and elswhere also).

Similar results come up each time, most say honesty/trust/loyalty is most important, but usually close behind comes the two which I argue are more important: 1.] Motivation and 2.] Attitude.

Motivation is a personal thing largely, as what motivates me is not what necessarily motivates you. Although there are strategies employers can use, mentioned in other answers that can generally create good feelings amongst staff teams and get the best out of them.

Attitude is really the behaviour of an individual and in the work place is equally important to effectiveness and teamwork. Working alone demands a positive attitude as does the ability to communiocate well with colleagues, managers, suppliers and customers.

For me personally working for an employer, I find particularly difficult because the kind of organisations in my field tend to be big, publicly funded and therefore subject to very strict rules and politics. I find the latter especially can create conflict between effectiveness and efficiency. This is not helpful, I think the two need to be complimentary.

Such conflict demotivates me, so I work mostly self employed, plying my skills and trade freelance, and getting paid for what I do and not being chastised for not doing something.

Answer 3

Motivation is essential in order for employees to feel valued, so that people do their jobs and do them well, to maintain interest and to keep a company running smoothly.
I have worked in a variety of contexts and I have to say that when I have not felt motivated I don't see any real reason to try hard or to do my job well, and this is the same for my colleagues.
For example I used to be a barmaid and when motivated the pub would run smoothly, the tables etc would be clean and the environment was comfortable. When the management set a poor example, didn't bother to keep staff informed and failed to maintain stocks etc staf felt demoralised and neglected. As a result people stopped wearing their uniforms, the whole place got shoddy and there weren't even menus available. The atmosphere was terrible and profits plunged. Fortunately a new manager came in and turned the place around (with the same staff) by making people feel wanted, helping people to work where their personal skills worked best, offering training, keepig people informed about how profits were rising - and how this had been brought around by staff etc.

I am now a teacher - but motivation is just as important - and I think that it is important in any workplace. However, I would stress that the lower level jobs where you only get minimum wage and little in the way of job satisfaction it is very important to maintain motivation in order to maintain employee retention and for the company to be successful.

Answer 4

Ask any person who is successful in whatever he or she is doing what motivates him/her, and very likely the answer will be "goals". Goal Setting is extremely important to motivation and success. So what motivates you? Why are you in college? If you are in college because that's what your parents want, you may find it difficult to motivate yourself. Sure, it's possible to succeed with someone else providing the motivation for you. ("If you graduate from college, I'll give you a car!" or worse "If you don't graduate from college, you won't get a car.") But motivation that comes from within really makes the difference.

Certainly, you need some intelligence, knowledge base, study skills, and time management skills, but if you don't have motivation, you won't get far. Think about this analogy. You have a car with a full tank of gas, a well-tuned engine, good set of tires, quadraphonic CD system, and a sleek, polished exterior. There it sits. This car has incredible potential. (Have you heard that before?) However, until a driver sits behind the wheel, puts the key in the ignition, and cranks it up, the car doesn't function. You guessed it; the KEY is MOTIVATION.

Interest is an important motivator for a student. So is a desire to learn. When you link these two things together, you create success. Often success in an endeavor leads to more interest and a greater desire to learn, creating an upward spiral of motivation toward a goal you have established.

So be honest with yourself. Are you genuinely interested in being in college? Have you set realistic goals for yourself? How can you develop the internal motivation that really counts? When it comes to motivation, KNOWING is not as important as DOING.

Answer 5

Motivation is important but some things are better motivation factors that others. Money is not a good one. It is expensive and the effect only lasts a short while. Job satisfaction is good, recognition of effort is good. This is why a lot of car manufacturers are going away from the production line idea where on guy spends all day putting one part on and tightening two screws. There is no job satisfaction as you don't see any end product. They are now setting up teams who assemble a complete engine fit a a body so that the team can see a complete job done

Answer 6

Many business managers today are not aware of the effects that motivation can (and does) have on their business, and it is therefore important they learn and understand the factors that determine positive motivation in the workplace. The size of your business is irrelevant: whether you are trying to get the best out of fifty of your staff or just one, everyone needs some form of motivation. Motivation is something that is approached differently by different businesses and the responsibility of its integration lies with all immediate supervisors of staff. However, it is the business owner who must initiate motivation as a strategy to attain corporate goals.
Motivation is the force that makes us do things: this is a result of our individual needs being satisfied (or met) so that we have inspiration to complete the task.
Depending on how motivated we are, it may further determine the effort we put into our work and therefore increase the standard of the output.

Answer 7

My last employment had a serious lack of motivation from the top all the way down. If the management/owners are not motivated I am not motivated. If I am not motivated I could care less whether the company succeeds or not. Motivation can make the difference between being just a paycheck or being a career that you care about and want to succeed at. If the employees care about the job and want to succeed then the business benefits.

Answer 8

Motivation is extremely important in the workplace and it can be either positive or negative motivation.

Where I work, it's a very "Theory X" organization* Last week we were told that we were paid too much and that they are ready to get rid of our entire team so they can pay less money to some new hires. Any infraction will result in losing our jobs without warning. The company give us no incentive to do a good job whatsoever, but they know that because they pay us $2.50 per hour more than any competitor (plus a 7% unemployment rate) they keep us working at this place . So yes, money can be a motivator. But lack of positive motivation makes for extremely unhappy employees. As a result too many people have no incentive to go the extra mile on the job. I'm one of the few at my place who will try to do things with the extra mile because of my own work ethic.

Here are some good websites for you on creating a positive workplace.

http://humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/a/team_one_stop.htm?nl=1

http://www.shrm.org/hrnews_published/archives/CMS_016557.asp#P-8_0
http://www.babyshopmagazine.com/fall99/bsf997.htm




*Theory X - all employees are stupid and need to be kicked in the rear to stay focused on the jobs. Theory Y - employees genuinely want to work and you need to give them the opportunities to do their best.

Answer 9

Motivation is So important!!

If you feel like you are working for nothing, you feel worthless.

I had a big problem in my workplace one time. I used to work as a health care assisstant in a home for people with learning difficulties. It was a very challenging job where the staff faced verbal and physical abuse on a daily basis.

Now I'm not complaining about that as it is part of the job, but what gutted us was our boss's attitude.

We had to work 12 hour shifts and arrive 10 minutes before and stay 10 minutes after to brief the next shift in what had gone on that day. Our boss was usually late and almost ALWAYS left at least 2 1/2 hours early.

The evenings were our most difficult times, but we were left with no support.

There was no-one in management to see our struggle or reward us with a compliment for a job well done when we managed to stop 2 patients trying to kill each other!

The boss gave us no reason to act professionally.

Also, there was no feeling of gratitude or reward for a job well done.

As a result it was always very hard to keep staff.

Motivation is easy to give employees; respect them and thank them.

Answer 10

Motivation in the workplace is extremely important. Motivated people are happier, care about their job performance and tend to do their work much more efficiently. Without motivation businesses or companies aren't nearly as productive as those that place importance on motivating their employees.

Answer 11

I am an office manager at my place of employment. Motivation is extremely important. To keep the chins of the employee's up and let them know they are doing great work and not being afraid to let them know when they screw up are very important keys to getting the necessary work done so that all parties involved are happy, successful and productive to the company, the company is also successful as a result. There are not a low of things that are worse than having a horrible boss, manager, supervisor, etc. It makes the work day long, tedious, irritable and non-productive.

There are ways to get things done and badgering an employee to get it done, get it done...is counter productive. If the employee is capable of doing the work, then let them do it...if they are repeatedly screwing up the job or are incompetent then move them elsewhere.