Ethics in Business: A Case Study

Motivation

Your employees are the key to your successful business.

Motivation affects employee performance, which affects organizational objectives.

Satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers.

Motivated employees make your job easier.

In order to be effective in creating a positive motivational climate, we need to take a look at what characterizes today's employees.

They see compensation as a consequence of performance and, therefore, expect to be rewarded accordingly.

They are concerned with organizational recognition.

They want to participate in decisions that affect them.

They value communication with management.

They tend to have a short-term goal orientation.

They want work to be challenging, interesting and

Research shows that employee motivation falls into two categories: maintainers and motivators. Maintainers are factors that must be kept at a satisfactory level and include the following:

Working conditions

Company policies

Job security

Pay and benefits

Relationships

Supervision

Status

True motivators are factors that create an inner desire to work by satisfying certain needs that are important to the individual such as

Achievement

Recognition

The job itself

Responsibility

Advancement

Growth

Goal Setting Theory

Goal-setting theory, developed by Edwin A. Locke and Gary Latham, is the most thoroughly validated motivation theory in the field of management. Here's what goal setting researchers have discovered:

* People accomplish more when they're trying for performance goals which are both difficult (challenging, even impossible) and specific (clear) than when they're trying for any other type of goal (such as "do your best" or "work hard")

* Goals are most likely to be attained when people are strongly committed to the goals and are given feedback showing their progress in relation to the goals

* People are most likely to set high goals and be committed to them when they have high self-efficacy (task-specific self-confidence)

* Goals regulate action directly by affecting what people pay attention to, how hard they work, and how long they work

* Goals affect action indirectly by motivating people to discover and utilize task strategies which will facilitate goal achievement

* Incentives must not discourage risk-taking, such as trying for nearly impossible goals

Setting Goals to Get Innovation

Goal setting can serve a critical role in stimulating innovation because goals help to keep creative people challenged, keep them on the right path, and provide a sense of purpose -- which, together, should stimulate creativity. Goals help direct attention to what needs to get done, and influence several of the cognitive activities needed for creativity. For instance, search for viable alternatives must be focused and not random in order to be effective. Goals help determine where to search for information and how to evaluate the information obtained as to its usefulness.