The strength of the influences on motivation differs according to the type of organisation, the department within an organisation and the state the organisation is in.
There is really no substitute for finding out for yourself what the key motivators and demotivators are within the parts of your organisation.
Different organisations
For example, the major influences on motivation for professional staff might be:
- Challenging work
- People I work with
- Career development opportunities
For factory staff, the top motivators may be:
- Being treated with respect
- Having management I can respect
- Job security
Different departments
Within an organisation there are also differences in what people see as being motivators and demotivators.
The results from a car dealership are a case in point. The figures show the rank order of how people saw the importance of seven influences. They are divided into four different departments – sales, service, parts and technical.
All staff are in agreement that the work they do and the people they work for are the most important, and all rank the friendly atmosphere fourth. But there are some differences which would be of interest to the senior management team – sales staff, for example, have rated job security as least important while parts and technical see it as their number three priority.
All departments:
1 The work I do
2 The people I work with
3 The friendly atmosphere
4 Our reputation
5 Job security
6 Salary/benefits package
7 Career opportunities
Sales:
1 The work I do
2 The people I work with
3 Our reputation
4 The friendly atmosphere
5 Salary/benefits package
6 Career opportunities
7 Job security
Service:
1 The people I work with
2 The work I do
3 Our reputation
4 The friendly atmosphere
5 Job security
6 Salary/benefits package
7 Career opportunities
Parts:
1 The people I work with
2 The work I do
3 Job security
4 The friendly atmosphere
5 Our reputation
6 Salary/benefits package
7 Career opportunities
Technical:
1 The work I do
2 The people I work with
3 Job security
4 The friendly atmosphere
5 Career opportunities
6 Our reputation
7 Salary/benefits package
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Differences are even more marked when you analyse demotivators. Parts and technical feel “over-managed” while in sales it is the length of working hours which seems to be causing pain.
Adapted from Measuring and Improving Employee Motivation by Peter Fargus. Published by Financial Times Prentice Hall, an imprint of Pearson Education, £75. You can order it at www.briefingzone.com at 15 per cent discount.
