Discus the environmental factors that affect motivation. What are the three requisites necessary to create a motivating environment?
Environmental factors
These factors include supervision style, organisational climate and culture, team spirit, cooperation and the organisation rewards and recognition systems.
Managers should also be aware of the fact that people differ in terms of the nature and strength of their needs, expectations, self concept but they also differ in terms of the influences coming from the environment (environment signal different influences to people).
Thus people react differently to the same motivating environment, there are people who are self starters and some who have to be encouraged or motivated to work but are in the same environment with self starters.
People also decide on the amount of effort that they are prepared to put in return for a particular reward or punishment and people also differ in relation to the decision they will make with regards to the effort they will put in whatever that were or are doing. The big question they ask is what’s in it for me? And what they expect to get out of it should be of value and or determine their status.
NB: people normally choose the best alternative among options and in the majority of cases they normally choose the best perceived option with attractive outcomes.
As such managers need to understand all these things in order to be able to create a motivating environment.
Three Requisites Necessary to Create a Motivating Environment
- Effective management leadership
- A shared value system – everyone should identify with any of the values, they help guide behaviour in the organization
3. Sound work ethics
In addition managers should provide inspiration in this environment for example they may institute name changes to departments e.g. Department of engineering can be renamed Department of Beauty, PEST analysis can be taken as STEP. These changes directly affect or influence an organisation’s ability to creating a motivating environment. Themselves they do not create a motivating environment, but they influence and organization in a number of ways.
Outputs of a motivating environment
Commitment – of workers to goals and visions and their alignment to it. Management should be able to communicate the consequences and benefits of sticking to the goals and vision of the organization.
Efficiency and effectiveness – employees cannot be productive is they are not efficient and effective. If they cannot do the right thing in the right way you will never out-compete your rivals.
