What Motivates Primary School Staff - Example

Name: xxxxxxxxxx Course: xxxxxxxxxx Institution: xxxxxxxxxx Title: Managing people in Organizations Date: xxxxxxxxxxxxx Managing people in organizations Introduction Employee motivation is the act or process of stimulating, energizing or activating goal oriented behaviors in the workplace of an organization. Motivation influences behavior and performance, giving purpose and desire towards the achievement of goals (Landy & Becker 1987). Employee motivation is thus integral to the realization of the goals or achievement of standards in any organization. It is a fundamental aspect of management since the success of an organization is largely predicated on the ability of managers of leaders to bring out the best in employees who will in turn direct their efforts and energies into achieving organizational goals. For employees to be effectively motivated, management or leadership must put in place strategies which appeal to the personalities of different employees. However, before this is done, leadership or management must understand what it is that motivates their employees (Herzberg, Mausner & Snyderman, 1959).To this end, various theories have been propounded to explain employee motivation. Some of the most common theorists in this regard include Frederick Herzberg, Frederick Winslow Abraham Maslow and Elton Mayo. This paper seeks to analyze the contribution of some of these theories to a better understanding of what motivates primary school staff in achievement of the standards to which their schools are committed to achieving. The paper will first analyze the arguments put forward by some of the most popular motivation theories. Each of these theories will then be applied in turn to explain what motivates primary school staff, in particular teaching and administrative staff, to either achieve or maintain the excellent standards to which the institution is committed. In conclusion, the various motivational factors for these employees shall be identified. Motivation Theories One of the earliest motivation theorists was Frederick Winslow Taylor. The pioneer of scientific management, Taylor argued that what primarily motivates employees is monetary remuneration or compensation for their efforts. According to Taylor, work is not generally enjoyable thus employees need some control or supervision to ensure that they complete their tasks. He proposed scientific management, where production is broken down to a series of small tasks. Employees are then given the requisite training to perform each task and provided with the appropriate tools to do so. Employees are then remunerated according to their performance which is measured by their individual output or how much they produce in a set period of time. The underlying import for motivation is that employees are driven to maximize their productivity by working harder so as to receive more pay (Herzberg, Mausner & Snyderman, 1959). In a primary school, Taylor’s theory of motivation can be applied to the salaries of various members of staff. For instance, the salaries of different teachers may be predicated on their individual classes’ performance in national exams such as GCSE. This would take the form of a performance based incentive system where each teacher’s pay is determined according to the performance of their students in the latest periodic exams. A study conducted on motivation of primary school teachers in Pakistan found that low salaries were the principal cause of teacher de motivation. The study recommends that an incentive system be put in place where teachers are paid according to performance since low salaries have led to teachers seeking supplementary sources of income. According to Taylor, better pay would thus motivate teachers to commit to their jobs and work harder to reap the financial benefits of better performance (Kovach, 1987). In addition to salaries or pay, Taylor’s scientific management can also motivate primary school staff, especially teachers, by ensuring their competency through continuous training which develops their personal and professional skills. To achieve the high standards set by the school, teachers would be trained through workshops and seminars on more effective methods to deliver desired learning outcomes. As a result of this, their competency and confidence would be enhanced and this will motivate them towards attaining the excellence standards set by the school (Mitchell 1982). Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949) had a different point of view from Taylor’s. Mayo was a proponent of the Human Relations School. Mayo identified a set of motivational factors as a result of the outcome of experiments at the Hawthorne Electric factory in Chicago. Mayo’s findings revealed that even a change of working conditions such as lighting had little or no effect on their productivity. Mayo concluded that employees were better motivated if employees’ social needs in the workplace were met by employers. He argued that if employers treated their employees with more respect, took their opinions into consideration and enhanced the quality of interaction in the workplace, their employees were more productive. This was because such practices in the workplace raised the employees’ self esteem. Employers should thus take a keen interest in their employee’s welfare as a means of motivating them. Employees at Hawthorne were also found to be more productive if they were allowed to work in teams. Organizations should thus be restructured in a manner that allows employees to do collaborative work interact more frequently with both each other and their superiors and makes them and their opinions feel valued by being consulted frequently (Laurie 2007). Mayo’s theory can be applied to understand what motivates staff in primary schools. By catering for their social needs, head teachers or head masters can motivate their staff towards better performance. By allowing teachers to interact with each other at various levels within the school, their self esteem and sense of self worth is enhanced and they feel more inspired to participate in attainment of the school goals. For instance, the teachers should be consulted in activities such as drafting the class timetables. This would motivate them to adhere to such instruments as they would feel that they were consulted and their opinion taken into consideration. Teachers would also feel respected and valued by the headmaster or senior staff and would have more reason to undertake their duties. Fulfilling the social needs of employees also makes the workplace more conducive and enjoyable. Teachers and administrative staff would thus feel more at ease in during staff meetings and other interactive forums(Robbins & Judge 2010). An improvement to the Human Relations School was the Neo Human Relations School motivation theory developed by Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg. This theory of motivation emphasized on the psychological needs of the employees. In his 1954 publication Motivation and Personality, Maslow proposed that there are five levels of human needs which each employee needs to have fulfilled at work. These needs are represented in a pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid are the fundamental or basic human needs while at the apex is self actualization. The first level of needs in Maslow’s hierarchy is physiological needs. These are the prerequisites for human survival or the needs without which human beings or even animals would not live. These include food, air and water which are necessary for metabolism and other needs such as clothing and shelter. The next level of needs is safety needs. These are needs as financial security, health, well-being and personal safety which dominate a person’s behavior and create a sense of balance and predictability for the individual in the world. Above safety needs is love and belonging. Once the physical and safety needs are satisfied, a human being needs their social needs fulfilled by emotional feelings such as love and belonging. These are fulfilled through friendships or intimate relationships (Maslow 1943). Above love and belonging needs is esteem, which represents a need to feel respected and valued. Above esteem needs, at the apex, is self actualization. Self actualization can be described as the fulfillment of all the lower needs. Self actualization represents the desire for an individual to fulfill his potential. At this stage, one needs to have achieved and mastered the other four needs and to have mastered them as well. According to Maslow, one cannot fulfill a higher need before fulfilling a lower one. For instance, a man who has no shelter or clothing will first seek a job with a wage which can afford him food, clothing and shelter before focusing on their self esteem or love and belonging needs(Robbins & Judge 2010). According to Maslow, an employee can only be motivated when a lower level need has been met which allows them to turn their focus toward another level. The implication of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to motivation is that on organization should provide each employee with an opportunity to move up the hierarchy by providing different incentives to different employees. This also recognizes that not all employees are motivated by the same things or in the same way since they may each be at a different stage in the hierarchy. Thus in a primary school, for instance, different teachers or learning assistants may have to be motivated using different strategies. Teachers or staff who have recently joined the school from college would be taken care of by periodical wage increases but staff who have served in the school for a long period of time may settle for nothing short of a promotion- for example from assistant to class teacher- which fulfills their esteem needs(Maslow 1943). Applying Maslow’s argument to primary school teachers, they must first be able to fulfill their lower needs such as material benefits and pay which guarantee them housing, food, transport, healthcare, education and training. Adequate salaries may serve to motivate teachers at the onset of their careers but after these basic or lower needs are fulfilled, job satisfaction is pegged on fulfilling higher order emotional and social needs. These include professional self esteem, job security, opportunities for career advancement and interpersonal relationships in the workplace (Maslow 1943). Working closely with Maslow, Frederick Herzberg proposed a two factor theory of motivation or the Motivation Hygiene theory. According to Herzberg, people work principally in their own enlightened self interest and thus introduction of certain factors into the workplace motivate employees while the absence of some factors which if otherwise present would motivate employees de motivates employees. These factors or needs which motivate employees are the motivators or human needs while the factors whose absence would de motivate employees are known as hygiene factors or animal factors (Maslow 1943). Motivators are factors which relate directly to the job itself. These may include some of the work attributes such as creative control, work intensity or room for extra responsibility and promotion. Hygiene factors, on the other hand, are factors “surrounding” the job such as salary, work supervision or working environment and conditions. Herzberg, unlike Taylor, classifies salary as a hygiene factor since a worker would be more motivated to turn up to work if pay is adequate alongside other hygiene factors such as safe working conditions and insurance cover. Herzberg thus proposes that for an employee to be motivated, the organization must try to enhance the nature and content of the employee’s job. This would be achieved through different strategies. These include making the job more interesting or challenging to foster a sense of achievement for employees who eventually complete them or job enrichment. Employees can also be given a wider range of tasks to complete which makes their jobs more interesting or job enlargement. Empowerment can also be employed as a strategy where employees are given decision making powers to control some of the aspects of their working environment (Pilbeam & Corbridge 2010). In a primary school, some of the strategies that could be employed to motivate employees according to this theory are job enrichment and job enlargement. Enrichment can be executed through assigning more challenging tasks to staff to make their jobs more involving. For example, teaching staff may be challenged to achieve certain grade benchmarks or learning outcomes which would motivate them to dedicate more effort towards preparing the students to sit for exams or in completion of the syllabus in time. Teachers may also be encouraged to compete against each other. To enlarge their jobs, teachers may also be assigned additional tasks such as organizing and overseeing events such as career day talks, field trips with students or sports competitions. With the appropriate hygiene factors in place, this would make teachers’ jobs much more interesting and involving and they would feel naturally motivated to complete the various challenges and demands of their new jobs. Teaching and administrative staff can also be empowered by giving class teachers the autonomy to draft timetables or to design learning programs for their individual classes. Existing activities such as parent teacher consultative meetings also motivate teachers since it gives them an opportunity to try and resolve some of the learning challenges faced by particular students and makes their job a little more interesting (Robbins & Judge 2010). Another motivation theory that can be used to give a better understanding of what motivates primary school employees is David McClelland’s acquired needs theory. McClelland’s theory argues that an individual’s acquires their specific needs over time. These needs are in turn shaped by personal experiences. McClelland classifies these needs into three- need for achievement need for affiliation and need for power. According to McClelland, people who have a high need for achievement aspire to excel in their fields. Consequently, they tend to prefer more secure options or avoid situations with extremely high or low risk. In their perspective, low risk situations do not provide the genuine satisfaction of achievement while high risk situations are perceived as being dependent on chance rather than effort. Such people or employees tend to either associate with either other high achievers or simply prefer to work alone. People with high need for affiliation, on the other hand, desire smooth and harmonious relationships with other people or co workers. Due to their need for acceptance, they prefer situations which provide opportunities for personal interaction in the workplace. As a result, they tend to prefer working in positions that allow them as much interaction with customers or staff as possible. Finally, people with a need for power either seek it to be able to direct and influence others or to strengthen the institutions (Pervin 1968). McClelland’s theory is a particularly useful tool for managers in the workplace. It informs the decision as to how to allocate tasks or duties and responsibilities based on establishing what motivates different types of employees. For example, people with high need for achievement are better suited for more challenging tasks while people with need for affiliation thrive in a cooperative environment such as team related activities. People with a need for power are motivated by opportunities to control or direct activities and can be used by management to manage other people (Landy & Becker 1987). The implication of the acquired needs theory of motivation in a primary school lies in how leadership assigns roles and responsibilities. Different staff members will portray different needs and will thus be motivated in different capacities. For example, a teacher with high need for achievement is better placed teaching more challenging subjects such as mathematics. A teacher or staff member with a high need for affiliation is also more likely to be motivated if they are assigned roles with consultative capacities such as counselors or planners of school events such as parent teacher consultative meetings. On the other hand, staff with a high need for power, especially institutional power, can be assigned administrative duties or can effectively be used as heads of departments or committees as they will be more committed and mobilize action towards achieving the school’s excellent standards (Reiss 2004). Bibliography Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B., 1959, The motivation to work.  Wiley, New York. Kovach, A., 1987, What motivates employees? Workers and supervisors give different answers, Business Horizons, 30, 58-65. Landy, F.  & Becker, S., 1987, Motivation theory reconsidered, Research in organizational behavior, JAI Press, Greenwich. Laurie M., 2007, Management and Organisational Behaviour, Pitman, London. Pilbeam, S. & Corbridge, M., 2010, People Resourcing and Talent Management: HRM in practice, Prentice Hall, London. Maslow, A., 1943, A theory of human motivation, Psychological Review, July 1943, 370-396. Mitchell, T., 1982, Motivation: New directions for theory, research, and practice. Academy of Management Review, 7, 80-88. Pervin, L., 1968, Performance and satisfaction as a function of individual-environment fit.    Psychological Bulletin, 69, 56-68. Reiss, S., 2004, Multifaceted nature of intrinsic motivation: The theory of 16 basic desires, Review of General Psychology 8 (3): 179–193. Robbins, S., & Judge, T., 2010, Essentials of organizational behavior, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Read More