Introduction
The employees and organizations should provide greater commitment to attain performance targets and for executing organizational strategies. Top management often uses a variety of motivational tools and rewards to enroll organizational commitment for execution of a strategic plan.
To enable workers to maintain energetic commitment, the organization should be creative in devising and adopting motivational incentives, which include non-monetary and monetary (Thompson, Strickland III, & Gamble, 2009, p.404).
Managers should understand various factors that motivate employees and should depend more on motivational incentives as a technique for attaining the projected financial and strategic results. This approach often helps improve the commitment of employees for daily strategic execution and attainment of performance targets.
Discussion
Monetary incentives are normally the most important motivational techniques in the effort of gaining enthusiastic employee commitment to attain operational excellence and strategic execution.
Financial rewards often comprise various combinations of stock rewards, profit-sharing plans, performance bonuses, base pay increases, piecework incentives (mostly for production employees), and organizational contributions to workers or retirement arrangements (Thompson, Strickland III, & Gamble, 2009, p.404).
However, successful organizations and managers often make extensive use of these non-monetary incentives, such as proper job security, decreased (or increased) autonomy, stimulating assignments, special appreciation at organization’s newsletter or gatherings, opportunities to be transferred to attractive units or locations, and rapid promotion.
Employees should be provided with fringe benefits and attractive perks. These include maternity leaves, telecommuting, paid sabbaticals, free lunches or subsidized cafeterias, personal travel services, on-site massage therapists, gym facilities, paid vacation of about three weeks, academic sponsorships, and full medical coverage.
Organization should also rely on internal promotion since it promotes positive tie between employers and employees. It is also an incentive for an excellent performance. Internal development helps improve employees’ knowledge and responsibility concerning the operations, technology, and business they are managing (Arnolds, 2007).
Moreover, an organization with exciting amenities and features typically has definitely constructive effect on worker productivity and morale. Organizations should often promote a workplace in which there is concrete mutual respect, compassion, and sincerity among workers and between workers and managers or top management.
A “family” workplace where employees are on a first-name basis and well-built comradeship encourage teamwork and inter-unit alliance. Another important factor is to share information with workers regarding competitors’ actions, market conditions, operational measures, strategy, and financial performance (Thompson, Strickland III, & Gamble, 2009, p.404).
Extensive disclosure and timely communication can show that employers or managers trust their employees. Uninformed workers are unable to obtain information helpful for carrying out their work, prevent them in learning new ideas, and regularly turn employees off.
Organizations have developed an exciting range of reward and motivational strategies to help generate a workplace that energizes their workers and promotes effective strategic execution.
For example, Google has initiated some motivational methods, such as an expansive complex recognized as Googleplex in which most employees receive pool services, free meals, Ping-Pong tables, limitless ice scream supply, and admiring massage services. The company’s management considers this complex a “dream environment” (Thompson, Strickland III, & Gamble, 2009, p.405).
Additionally, Google provides the workers with the capability of spending 20% of their daily activities on any external function or activity. Amgen, a leading biotech, has also shown implementation of motivation techniques, such as free internal massages, academic sponsorship of about $10,000, 16 compensated holidays, a low-priced car wash, and liberal vacation period.
Balance Between Rewards and Punishment
While most practices on employees’ management, compensation, and motivation emphasize the positive aspects, organizations also integrate the risk of punishment with positive rewards. Employees and managers whose work performance is unsatisfactory to warrant promotion are initially not provided with stock rewards and bonuses and finally removed.
Employees are forced to attain “stretch” targets and expected to work extra hours and days if required. In some organizations, managers and other key employees in underperforming departments are pressured to improve performance to satisfactory levels and maintain it there or may risk being removed (Thompson, Strickland III, & Gamble, 2009, p.405).
Generally, it is ill-advised to use force or orders for group performance and hardworking employees or underpay the adverse consequences, anxiety, and strain for any failure by an employee. Moreover, no research findings are showing that a no-adverse-consequences or no-pressure workplace results in greater operating excellence or strategic execution.
Conversely, if reward systems and motivational techniques of a company bring on objectionable consequences, job insecurity, domestic competitiveness, and excessive pressure, the effect on personnel strategy execution and self-esteem can cause lower productivity. Research findings show that managerial plans to enhance strategy execution have to integrate less negative than positive motivational essentials.
When employees are positively enrolled and motivated, with minimal negative motivational techniques, employees are likely to retort with positive ideas, commitment, creativity, and interest.
However, the negative consequences of under-performance should never be too demoralizing or harsh since it hinders a strong-minded and renewed effort to prevail over existing barriers and achieve the company’s targets in future periods (Danish & Munir, 2008).
Conclusion
Positive rewards and motivational activities from organizations are significant methods for obtaining better productivity and employee commitment.
The primary approach of producing reward system that encourages effective strategic execution is to use strategically applicable performance measures as a base for giving out rewards, assessing group and individual efforts and designing incentives. Positive motivational incentives usually are encouraged more than negative approaches, but also both can work jointly.
References
Arnolds, C. (2007). The Strategic Importance of Motivational Rewards for Lower-Level Employees in the Manufacturing and Retailing Industries. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 33 (3): 15-23.
Danish, R., & Munir, Y. (2008). The Impact of Motivation on Employee’s Commitment: Evidence from Public and Private Sector of Pakistan. International Bulletin of Business Administration, 4: 1-10.
Thompson, A., Strickland III, A. J., & Gamble, J. (2009). Crafting and Executing Strategy. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies.