HCS 325 Motivational Methods Paper

Motivational Methods Paper
HCS/325
February 21, 2011
Erica Falk-Huzar

How often do you see a new employee or a former employee that has been with a company for a long period of time come in excited about being at work as upper management may be? Answer: Not very many people. It is important for the employee or employees to be happy to be at their job. The manager’s job is to figure out how to motivate their employees to perform their job to the best of their ability and to go that extra mile for the organization as well. Maslow’s theory has five levels of needs and they are self-actualizing, physiological, safety, ego, and social (Lombardi, 2007). “A lack of motivation without having effective motivation methods and motivation strategies
The first method would be setting goals whether they are specific, challenging, acceptance, commitment, clarifying, and rewarding they can create a motivation within each individual involved (Lombardi, 2007). The second method would be the expectancy theory that shows a person that would work hard if there was a positive outcome and if they are rewarded for their hard work. The employee or employees would be more motivated and the hard work that each employee puts into the rewards and the outcome will determine their motivation. The third method would be the equity theory which motivates the sense of achievement by giving each and every employee the same opportunity and by giving the same rewards for the hard work they have done for the organization. By making people feel important about their hard work and their skills provides then with the feeling of encouragement and happiness. This has to be maintained in order for the employee or employees to contribute their hard work for good quality
Positive and negative reinforcements can also be used along with punishment. The manager will provide reinforcements by meeting the organizations standards with little or no errors. If errors occur then the rewards may be taken away and reinforcements may take place if needed. If no errors occur than rewards will be given out to the employee or employees and no conflict will happen. The manager should always give an explanation of what is expected of the employees before and after their job is performed to the best of their ability. The manager should monitor each and every employee so that he or she can give them feedback as to what the employees did wrong so that it doesn’t happen again and the manager should praise the employee or employees. The manger should also talk to each employee privately so that they are not being ridiculed in front of their peers and feel bad about themselves (Lombardi, 2007). Planning and providing a plan of action should keep the results at a low. Without a plan of action the results shows the other managers failure to provide the instruction to have an accurate result. The manager needs to find out what each and every employee strengths and weaknesses are so that he can keep their morale up to the employee’s expectations. A manager should never make an employee feel dumb or incompetent with tasks and questions asked (Lombardi,