Current Issues in Motivation

Current Issues In Motivation

Motivating a Diverse Workforce
–Flexibility is the key to motivating a diverse workforce
• Diverse array of rewards necessary to satisfy diverse personal needs and goals.
Flexible Working Schedule
• compressed workweek - employees work longer hours per day but fewer days per week.
• Flexible work hours (flextime) - employees required to work a specific number of hours a week but are free to vary those hours within certain limits
– System entails common core hours when all employees are required to be on the job
– Starting, ending, and lunch-hour times are flexible
• Job sharing - two or more people split a full-time job
• Telecommuting - employees work at home and are linked to the workplace by computer and modem.

– Cultural Differences in Motivation
• Motivation theories developed in the U.S. and validated with American workers
• may be some cross-cultural consistencies
Pay-for-Performance
– Instead of paying for time on the job, pay is adjusted to reflect some performance measure
– Compatible with expectancy theory
• imparts strong performance-reward linkage
– Programs are gaining in popularity
• Research suggests that programs affect performance.
Open-Book Management
– involve employees in workplace decisions by opening up the financial statements
– Workers treated as business partners
– get workers to think like an owner
– may also provide bonuses based on profit improvements
Motivating the “New Workforce”
– Motivating Professionals - professionals tend to derive intrinsic satisfaction from their work and receive high pay
• More loyal to their profession than their employer
• value challenging jobs and support for their work
Motivating Contingent Workers - part-time, contract, or temporary workers
• Less security and stability than permanent employees
– receive fewer benefits
• display little identification or commitment to their employers
• Hard to motivate contingent workers
– Opportunity to... [continues]

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