There has been a lot of talk in the industry about motivating employee,. There is no one golden rule to motivate them. It varies from person to person. A very important aspect is why do you want to motivate the employees. Do you want to reduce the attrition rate , do you want to enhance the performance of the employee, etc. So the motivation tool will depend on the reason for motivating employees.What I believe is that each person has differenrt needs and aspirations, so the only thing HR person can do is to create an
atmosphere of trust and harmony in the organization which is conducive enough for the employee to motivate himself.

Make an employee feel a part of the organization. And above all, show it through actions and not mere words. As the qoute goes- Action speak louder than words. Here again the management together with the HR and the employee himself can make the organization a better place to work.

Hello Friends

This has been an interesting thread to watch and I just couldn't refrain myself from jumping into it. Well, to motivate means to provide with a motive ... a purpose ... a goal. and then to encourage people towards that goal. HR as facilitators help people to identify a purpose of life.... a purpose for the organisation .... help to integrate these purposes... set achievable goals and on achievement of the goal give reward. Perhaps there are lots of theories.... and theoreticians... - from Pavlov, Skinner.... and we all have our own ideas, thessis and antethesis.

One area on which we HR professionals can think is what will be the reaction / response of the individual to these different terms when he is `subjected' to (1) encouragement (2) motivation. Like Victor Frankl who `discover' a purpose to live for and persuades a small group of People to identify with that purpose. Victor gives them a motive... and purpose to live. Take the case `Lagaan' where the hero (Aamir) motivates a handful of villagers to achieve a goal ... win the game. How will you call this motivation, encouragement or anything else?

When we read Abraham Maslow's need hierarchy, we get a picture of `Growth' and `deficit' motivators. Growth items are the higher order needs and deficit items are the lower order - physiological needs. When a welfare officer provide subsidised food in a `statutory' canteen what is he doing? Is he motivating or encouraging? When he `requires' his sweepers to find out solutions for housekeeping problems, is he motivating or encouraging? We can apply these terms to different contexts. Motivation is not synonimous with `bribing' . I have not come across any defintion which include terms like bribing... or any illegal gratification. Our laws prevent it. But gifts (controls applicable) are permissible.... We can have a new definitions: "encouraging individuals to achieve socially / morally acceptable goals", etc.

One can look at the motives (needs) of individuals (like Sherlock Homes) and provide with those needs (which are socially / morally acceptable) and achieve need satisfaction for individuals and goal achievement for the organisation.

Providing for need satisfaction is motivation. If children ask us to give gun, we will not give; if they ask for sweets, we will give. If they ask for too much of sweets, we will not give. A mother will make the child complete his/her home work and will give sweets (which is fulfilment of a `deprived' need)... and the goal is acceptable in all respects. The `subject' will remain deprived of the sweet till he/she achieve the gaol / perform the task. Can we say the mother is bribing the child. And if the child say, if he/she is not given sweets, he/she will not work?

The purpose of business is profit. Our existence in the organisation is to enable that purpose... of making profit. We enable achievement of corporate goals while creating atmosphere for employee's need satisfaction. People should know reality... that if they don't make profit / add value greater than cost, organisations cannot achieve competitiveness and survive in the market. Therefore it is in their interest to exert moore or do more work... Here motivation is effective communication of plain truth (not as threat) .... and awareness / knowledge of reality operate as a drive / pressure within the individual to contribute. Knowledge of real situation changes his values and belief systems and modify his attitudes towards otehr stakeholders.

Another way is to identify values, visions, mission, goals, etc. collectively... and people will do more work to achieve the goals they themselves identified and shall try to give by the values.

Care should be takeen to balance the needs of all stakeholders... one should not be rewarded unduely at the cost of another... that will lead to demotivation and conflict later.