Introduction
Motivating employees is a crucial and complicated task for managers. However, employee motivation is an important tool for achieving organizational goals. Therefore, without motivation, it is difficult to complete organizational tasks. Often, people have regarded money as the greatest motivator for employees, but money only motivates people to a limited extent. Therefore, managers may use other motivational methods to motivate their teams. This paper explores some of these motivational methods, in the context of an organization that is undergoing restructuring (downsizing). Therefore, the motivational approaches for this paper apply to an organizational restructuring context where a manager prepares employees to embrace a set of proposed organizational restructuring strategies.
Leading by Example
Westwood (2010) says that motivation starts with leaders. Indeed, motivating employees, by example, is perhaps the most effective method that most employees can learn from their managers. Westwood (2010) also says that great leaders should demonstrate effective leadership through their actions. Her view stems from the fact that about 80% of organizational actions stem from only 20% of the actions that most managers demonstrate (Westwood, 2010).
Therefore, those managers who fail to motivate their employees often fail to pay attention to their actions. Consequently, Westwood (2010) advises managers to pursue several strategies of improving their actions, as a way to motivate their employees.
Some of her suggestions include focusing on long-term goals, being self-aware of their actions, and focusing on activities that provide good results, as opposed to those that do not exhibit the same results (Westwood, 2010). In her view, the best leaders are consistent, always try to improve what they do, and always strive to be the best they can be. In the same context, Westwood (2010) suggests that those managers who fail to motivate their employees should not blame the employees, but instead, act positively as leaders.
Comprehensively, if managers demonstrate a strong commitment to do their best work in the organization, they are bound to have the same effect on their employees. Similarly, if managers act like they are not motivated to do their best work, their negative work attitude is bound to rub off negatively on their employees as well. Therefore, in the context of this paper, it is crucial for managers to exude excitement about the proposed restructuring efforts in the organization. Through their positive attitudes, the employees will also find a reason to be positive about the organization changes as well.
Connecting Employee Efforts with Organizational Growth
It is important to draw the link between employee contribution and the overall growth of an organization. For example, managers may show their employees practical examples of how employee contribution supports organizational growth. More specifically, Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli (2009) say it is crucial for managers to show how the organization benefits when an employee excels in a certain task. For example, as the organization undergoes its restructuring exercise, the managers may demonstrate to the employees the importance of the restructuring exercise, and their roles in the process. For instance, the managers may show the employees that the company’s downsizing strategy aims to improve the corporate environmental performance of the organization.
The employees may therefore see that the overall goal is beneficial for the organization and their well-being as well. This way, the employees may understand the link between their roles, the roles of the managers, and the overall performance of the organization. Therefore, they will find a sense of purpose and direction regarding the overall growth of the organization. This will equally give them a strong sense of motivation to work.
Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli (2009) supported the above assertions through a research study, which explored the implications of meaningfulness to improved organizational performance. In the study, Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli (2009) found that positive psychological experiences and employee creativity improved when employees understood that their work in the organization was purposeful, engaging, and significant.
The above understanding has received immense support from previous studies that showed the willingness of people to derive meaning from their lives and work. Therefore, if people do not see how their efforts work to fulfill an overall “good” in the organization, they get demoralized to work. Regarding this assertion, Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli (2009) say, “Meaningfulness in the workplace helps shape individuals’ motivations and augments by promoting a sense of growth in the workplace” (p. 361).
The claim for the above assertion traces its roots to the identity and social identity theories. These theories exemplify the need to belong to a specific group of social identity (Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli, 2009). The theories also demonstrate that the social categories where employees work greatly influence their motivation levels and work perceptions.
Through the above understanding, it is easy to see how employees derive meaning from their performances because “meaning” manifests when the personal identities of the employees merge with organizational performance, or their membership to an organization. As described above, it is the duty of managers to define the meaningfulness of work so that the employees become motivated from the perceived prestige of working for the organization. This may happen when the managers connect employee efforts with organizational growth.
Coaching and Training
Helping employees to understand what they are supposed to do with the organization, and what the managers expect from them, is also an important step in boosting employee morale. If the managers address the individual needs of employees in the organization, such as their expectations of every employee, they support the career growth of the employees, thereby having a positive impact on how the employees feel about their work.
Zuyderduin & Obuni (2010) say it is very difficult for employees to remain motivated at work if they do not completely understand what the managers expect of them. The importance of coaching and training has sufficed through different studies. For example, Zuyderduin & Obuni (2010) say that coaching and training prove to have a positive impact on improving nursing retention rates in Uganda and improving the quality of care in the same regard.
The same study established that in a developing country like Uganda, an increase in wages did not primarily motivate the nurses; instead, the opportunity for professional development motivated the nurses (Zuyderduin & Obuni, 2010). Coaching and training therefore provide an example of professional development opportunities for employees. Through this analogy, pursuing career-enriching practices, like coaching and training, improves employee motivation.
Conclusion
After weighing the findings of this paper, the role of managers in motivating employees surface as the most important criterion for realizing impressive human resource performance. The roles of managers in coaching, mentoring, leading, and linking employee performance with organizational growth stand at the center of employee motivation. It is therefore prudent for managers to focus on employee development needs and career growth needs as they exemplify the importance of organizational restructuring, and the roles of the employees in such an exercise. This way, the employees will be motivated to work harder to achieve the organizational goals.
References
Cohen-Meitar, R. & Carmeli, A. (2009). Linking Meaningfulness in the Workplace to Employee Creativity: The Intervening Role of Organizational Identification and Positive Psychological Experiences. Creativity Research Journal, 21(4), 361–375.
Westwood, C. (2010). Leading by Example to Aid Personal Development. Nursing Management, 17(2), 22-23.
Zuyderduin, A. & Obuni, J. (2010). Strengthening the Uganda nurses’ and Midwives’ Association for a Motivated Workforce. International Nursing Review, 57(3), 419–425.