Out of the Crisis.Org

[Louis Altazan]

Getting people to exert effort for our aims is an age old dilemma. By nature people are endowed with the desire to conserve energy. Expending energy requires a reason and this survival technique is "hard wired" into our makeup. Management also realizes the more that is accomplished, the greater the profit. The more motivated the work force, the more likely things will be accomplished. This has been a struggle and typical management seems to be losing. A problem is, literally ancient methods are being applied with modern people. Eons ago it was figured out that one person could make another do what they wanted by inflicting pain. Soon it was learned that just the threat, with an occasional demonstration, was as effective.

This worked well as long as the desired outcome was rudimentary and the domineering party had no compassion. This too was greatly aided by a number of convenient capabilities of mankind. One is thinking of the dominated person as somehow deserving of their treatment. Viewing them as less intelligent, deserving, capable, etc. and assigning them a name (e.g., slaves, servants, serfs.) This grouping and labeling helped a great deal with the compassion issue. All that was needed was public acceptance for it to become institutionalized.

Fortunately people are compassionate beings and in time this was no longer seen as acceptable. Further, in order to control such a group it is important to keep them ignorant. This would not work as the complexity of needed task increased. A different method had to be found. The old method was the "stick" the newer method was the "carrot."

The "carrot" [incentive] had also been used for a long time. Promising a reward was nearly as effective as punishment, in getting people to produce activity. It also had the added benefits of seeming far more humane and it worked with more educated people. The "carrot" depends on offering someone something that they want or need and do not have [enough of,] in return for effort.

In reality the "carrot" is the "stick" sort of in reverse. It still depends on punishment. Withholding the reward results in displeasure [punishment.] This aspect of the method is seldom considered by those that employ it. Rather they see reward as something wholly positive and completely separate from punishment. This is a main drawback to the system. People only respond to the degree that they want/need what is offered.

A simple example might be a man who performs a job for food. He needs nourishment, so is willing to trade effort to gain it, as long as he has no better option. The person with the food may see this as a benevolent act and consider the worker should feel motivated. The worker only wishes the hunger [stick] to go away. The arrangement succeeds until the worker has eaten his fill or found another source of food.

The reward works as long as the need exist and other options do not. There is no motivation beyond avoidance of pain. Certainly a very rudimentary example but the principles apply. A full stomach does not equal motivation. The opposite of pain is not pleasure, the opposite of pain is a lack of pain. The man is neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, motivated nor de-motivated. From this respect the reward is a hygiene item. It is necessary to avoid pain [displeasure] but does not motivate.

Motivation is an internal concept, it is within the person. People may feel motivation when they are doing things that interest or please them. This is different from hygiene items. Hygiene items do not motivate by their presence, but tend to de-motivate by being absent or present in insufficient quantity.

A few hygiene items are: Pay, work conditions, job security, a safe work environment and fair company policies. A person without these conditions may work harder to get them. Once achieved the effect is neutral. Since they represent avoidance of pain and do not motivate. A person works no harder because of fair company policies. He may work less hard or quit if he perceives unfair policies. The same is true of pay. The person works no harder than necessary for their pay. They may work less or quit if less pay is given.

A few motivational items include: Growth, advancement, recognition, achievement and the work itself. The word work meaning expending of effort, not necessarily a job. A good example might be an enjoyable activity, for instance golf. A person that enjoys golf may be very motivated by the sport, even though it represent a great deal of effort. It may represent far more effort than the person’s actual job. The person expends the effort, yet feels refreshed. They spend time learning more about the sport. They practice to be better at it and look forward to the next opportunity to participate.

The output of effort in golf and the person’s job may be roughly equal. They are motivated by golf and not the job. For the interested person, golf may provide growth; they can get better and better. It may provide recognition; their friends respect their skill. There is a sense of achievement in the work itself. They understand the desired outcome and have the tools necessary to achieve it. Though it provides none of the hygiene items, the motivational items are there for those interested.

This is a vast oversimplification. In reality there are many other variables. Different people are affected differently by the factors. Largely this is influenced by their personality and their past experiences. There also seems to be a hierarchy. A person with under-met hygiene needs is less likely to allow motivational factors to influence them. A lack of security [hygiene] may keep advancement [motivational factor] from being important. The same seems to hold true with pay. Insufficient pay generally keeps people from concentrating on motivational factors. While more pay will not motivate, sufficient pay may allow motivation to be realized.

This is a generalization and applies in most normal cases. It assumes people have equal needs for psychological growth and freedom from psychological and physical discomfort. In reality there may be different profiles into which normal people fit as well as inversions or abnormal profiles. An example might be a person that has been extrinsically motivated for a long period of time.

This person may feel very little intrinsic motivation. Instead they see the reward [something outside of themself] as the motivation. The reward represents avoidance of discomfort but is seen as psychological growth. This is an inversion and not necessarily heathy. Since the ability to experience discomfort is limitless, their motivation is to reach the next level of reward. The reward has become the object rather than growth, achievement or joy of the activity.

In our culture this has become more and more common, to the point where it is almost seen as normal. Some believe this accounts for many incidences of alcoholism, chemical dependency, suicide and abusive behavior. At least it seems to correlate with well paid workers that have little job satisfaction and less motivation toward the job.



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Louis Altazan
Owner/Manager AGCO Automotive Corporation
Baton Rouge, LA

[slimmv]

Hi Louis,

"Big Day" for us, we are now on our new High-speed internet connection. Hooray!!!!!

As you know we have One son working with us and another has asked us to give him an opportunity to work in the shop while he is going to school.

We are overjoyed at the thought of maybe one or both sons working towards a future in this business.

The subject of motivation is very approiate at this point. We are so afraid of doing things to demotivate them. Fear of the unkown is a big demotivator,wouldn't everyone agree!

Therefore providing them with an outline of milestones and steps on the way to becoming professional techs would be beneficial
The construction of a Master Career Path should have been completed a long time before anyone became employed by VCI. Having admitted our failures, it's time "now"!

Louis, this maybe out of the scope of this discussion. If it is, maybe we could get some feedback as another topic.

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God Bless You!
Mike Viator

[Louis Altazan]

[Dave]

Hi Louis,

[Louis Altazan]

Hi Dave,