Organizational Theory and Behavior

Organizational Theory Application : Motivation

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Date of Submission Organizational Theory Application : Motivation

The attitudes of managers toward their people are of primary importance (Goleman , 2001 . Employees should be able to trust the motives and integrity of their supervisors . The managers in an organization are forced and driven to be cautiously appreciative of their people 's contribution that flows from high performance . They are expected to recognize that rewards must be psychological as well as financial , and strive for an atmosphere where each of their people can

share the adventure and excitement of working at the company . It is the responsibility of management to create a productive environment where the organization 's values flourish (Blauner , 1999 . These are the findings of Robert Blauner 's study Worker Satisfaction and Industrial Trends

According to his own research , the people side of organizations came into its own in the 1930s , predominately as a result of the Hawthorne studies . These studies led to a new emphasis on the human factor in organizations and increased paternalism by management . In the late 1950s , managers ' attention was caught by the ideas of people like Abraham Maslow and Douglas McGregor , who proposed that organization structures and management practices had to be altered so as to bring out the full productive potential of the employees

Blauner says that a look at today 's organizations indicates a number of ways in which human relations principles are highly influential Notably , the influence of employee empowerment can be clearly seen in the general attitude of management toward employees . It would be difficult indeed to find a manager today who would characterize his or her subordinates as interchangeable cogs . Rather , managers today do not question the fact that the employees in their organization have needs and desires that must be considered in organizational functioning . This is not to suggest that these human needs always take precedence in decision-making

In many of today 's workplaces , an effort is made to enrich jobs . The goal of job enrichment is to design tasks that will help satisfy some of the higher- needs of workers (that is , needs for self-esteem and self-actualization ) through the provision of motivational job factors According to Frederick Herzberg , included in the category of motivators are responsibility , achievement , recognition , challenging work , and advancement in the organization (Kleinbeck , et al , 2000

Judy Cameron and David Pierce explore the bearing of job satisfaction upon the employees ' motivation . As they define , job satisfaction is the difference between the amounts of rewards workers receive and the amount they believe they should receive (Cameron and Pierce , 2002 . The belief that satisfied employees are more productive than dissatisfied employees has been a basic tenet among managers for years . Although much evidence questions that assumed causal relationship , Cameron and Pierce argue that advanced societies should be concerned not only with the quantity of life , that is concerns such as higher productivity and material acquisitions , but also with its quality . The most potent factors in job satisfaction are...