Management of Organization Take Home Dhruv Gupta 1049922

8/2/2019 Management of Organization Take Home Dhruv Gupta 1049922

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/management-of-organization-take-home-dhruv-gupta-1049922 1/4

1

Dhruv Gupta Student ID: 1049922 HHL MBA (P7)

Management of Organizations:

Employee Motivation and Satisfaction in Modern Organizations

Modern Working environments are changing very fast. The classical approach of 9 to 5 job

is shrinking day by day. Managers are connected to Business 24 x 7 via their smart devices.

Today World is getting more and more connected. With Globalization, Business travels have

become inherent part of most of the Manager’s Work life. Be it Sales executive or Purchasing

Managers or Service team, employees must be ready to travel around the globe for

Organizations have become more flatter, as compared to multi layered Organizations of past.

The fast changing technology can make a person’s skills soon obsolete unless he trains

himself continuously. The fast changing economic Environment threatens the Job security

even more than earlier times. Today Families are nuclear and majority consists of working

partners and hence private lives look different now.

In such scenarios, Employers cannot rely on classical ways for motivating and retaining

employees. Companies need to and are adopting new ways of motivation and satisfaction to

employees to suit the modern day challenges. But before we delve into further we must

understand the different Motivational theories.

Maslow hierarchy of needs Theory ( Refernce1) suggests that

Motivation is a result of five different categories of human

Needs and desires, namely physiological, Safety, Belonging,

Esteem and self-Actualization and ordered them in form

of a Pyramid. Needs in the lower categories have to be satisfied

before needs in the higher ones can act as motivators.

Herzberg Motivation - Hygiene Theory: ( Reference2) identifies that factors that contribute

to satisfaction and dissatisfaction, are not two opposite ends on one end continuum. The

factors that lead to the job satisfaction are different from those that lead to job dissatisfaction.

He regarded the opposite of job satisfaction to be no satisfaction and the opposite of job

dissatisfaction to be no satisfaction. Thus the presence of motivator factors would cause

satisfaction and motivation and their absence only no satisfaction. The hygiene factors on the



2


other hand would mainly lead to dissatisfaction and would in a positive case only cause a zero

state of motivation or satisfaction.

The Motivator Factors according to Herzberg are: Achievement, Recognition, Work itself,

Responsibility, Advancement, and Possibility of growth.

The Hygiene factors for Herzberg are: Company policy and administration, Technical

supervision, Salary, Interpersonal relations – supervision, Working conditions, Status.

On analysis of these laws and Modern situation, it is clear that Employers today need new

ways for Motivating and retaining employees. Following are certain ways Modern

Organizations address for Employee satisfaction and Motivation issues.

Challenging Work Assignments: One of the main Motivating factors for employees are

challenging work assignments with new responsibilities. According to Herzberg, Job

enrichment is based on the relationships between ability, opportunity and performance

reinforcement. The more ability an employee possesses to do his or her work, Herzberg points

out, the easier the employee can be motivated to do a good job. Modern Employees prefer

high freedom and accountability in decision making.

Growth and Training Possibilities: Employees give high value for new learning

possibilities. Skill development and Training possibilities that employee allows employee to

deliver better and faster in more areas motivates employees to undertake new assignments.

Advancement/ Promotion in Organizations: Getting to Higher Ranks is important

motivation for Employees but in modern flatter organizations Employees need high

Motivation, good abilities, and networking to climb up the ladder.

Social Status Benefits: Factors which uplift the social Status of an Employee act today as

strong motivating factors. When for an Employee Personal Office space or a Company

Vehicle, Business class travel, latest technical Gadgets which in turn uplift the status of an

Employee are strong Motivators for Employees.

Performance related pay: Any system that relates the rewards of an individual employee to

the performance of the organization that he or she works for is called performance-related

pay, or PRP. The pay is often financial, but it can also be non-financial. Payments under such

schemes are usually made separately from regular salary payments. In this way the recipientappreciates that they are variable, separate and not guaranteed. ( Reference3). Herzberg



3


Theory contradicts the Performance related pay system. But performance bonuses are also a

way of recognizing achievement and hence fulfill self-actualization needs.

Work Life Balance. Many Organizations today offer flexible work timings for the

Employee, (unless tasks are production, Direct Services or related requiring presence in fixed

given hours.) Certain Industries, example Software Development, organizations (like IBM,

Wipro, Infosys, etc) even allow Work from Home concepts. This allows Employees to spend

quality time with their close ones and also stay connected to his Business. Flexible work

timings are not a Motivator but definitely a Hygiene factor for Employees for certain

Industries (Software or Development). It helps organizations to retain the Employees.

Working Conditions: Another important modern Hygiene factor is the Working

Environment of the Company. On campus recreational facilities like Sports or fitness center

or Modern technology at work helps retaining employees and also attract talent to the

organizations. Internet Giants today like Google, Facebook go extra mile to make their

Workplaces as ‘Cool’ as possible. Company Market Image is also a Hygiene factor which

helps to retain Employees and attract talented ones.

Practical Problem

I work in Machine Development (Anlagebau) company in Automotive Industries. Employees

including the Project Managers are required to travel quite often to Project sites and stay away

from their families sometimes for long periods of times. Frequent and long business travels

leaves the Employees complaining that they are not able to spend quality times with their

Families or for their Private affairs. The Company compensates the high travelling employees

by Travelling Allowances and or higher Project Bonuses.

Herzberg Theory tells us that Payment & salaries are only Hygiene factor and do not bring

motivation or Satisfaction to Employees. Absence of adequate salaries can lead to

dissatisfaction but not vice a versa. Hence Travelling bonuses or higher pay do not necessarily

solve the problem of such employees. From the view of Maslow theory of needs, Employees

who travel a lot generally loose the sense of Belongings with their close ones. They feel

unsecured about their Families. Physiological requirements like health, sex, sleep also get

affected. Travelling Allowances and or Project Bonuses compensate for such losses. And the

loss of lower categories of as per Maslow’s results loss of higher motivation.



4


What can Organizations do?

Possible action to assure Work Life Balance for such Employees is that, Mechanical

Industries should allow flexible timing options for travelling employees. Mangers /

Employees, who travel should have an option to Work from Home or decide working hours as

per their convenience. The flexibility will allow the Employees to cater to their private affairs

and without harming the Business.

Work from Home concept requires discipline from Employee side. Companies should keep

make policies if they provide such options to Employees. To safeguard the business, Project

Members & Manager should decide if the employee can work from home or his presence incompany is more important. Since Employees will not dedicate complete 8 hours for the

company at home, Work from Home can be coupled with Overtime reduction. For example

that employee must sacrifice 4 hours from his Overtime account for the days he Works from

home.

Further Organizations can distribute travelling burden from only few Employees and

distribute it over wider team.

Hence we see that organizations should recognize the modern challenges of an Employee and

should cater to them with new policies. The concept of Work from Home Options is not

popular in German Mechanical Industry yet. Management still follows the traditional view

that Work can only be done effectively from Offices. It is becoming very popular in Industries

and Organizations who have tried it.

References:

Reference 1: Management Dissertation about Heizberg Theory

http://www.ukessays.com/dissertations/management/information-herzberg-german.php

Reference 2: Economist Article about Hierarchy of needs: Maslow, A

http://www.economist.com/node/12407919

Reference 3: Economist Article Pay by performance

http://www.economist.com/node/14301231

Documents

Management of Organization Take Home Dhruv Gupta 1049922