Articles

What Motivates People at Work?

Monday, 29 March 2010 14:53

Most business leaders have lost sight of what motivates people at work.

In fact, some companies haven’t updated their management practices in years, which means they’re incapable of creating high-performance teams. In ”Drive: the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, former U.S. Department of Labor aide Daniel H. Pink says businesses commit “seven deadly flaws”:

1. Extinguishing motivation

2. Diminishing performance

3. Crushing creativity

4. Crowding out good behaviour

5. Encouraging cheating shortcuts and unethical behaviour

6. Becoming addictive, obsessive

7. Fostering short-term thinking

So, how can you boost the number of actively engaged employees from the paltry 33 percent reported by the Gallup Organisation?

Harvard Weighs In

In the 1920s, Harvard Business School initiated the first studies of human behaviour at work.

Researchers found that workers’ and managers’ social needs had a powerful impact on their behaviour. Workers enthusiastically embraced opportunities to contribute their thoughts, ideas and experiences regarding workplace issues.

Unfortunately, these findings failed to change work conditions for employees.

In 1949, psychologist Harry Harlow placed puzzles in monkeys’ cages and was surprised to find that the primates successfully solved them.

Harlow saw no logical reason for their motivation. The monkeys’ survival didn’t depend on it, and they didn’t receive any rewards or avoid any punishments.

Harlow offered a novel theory: “The performance of the task provided intrinsic reward.” The monkeys performed because they found it gratifying to solve puzzles.

Further experiments found that offering external rewards to solve these puzzles didn’t improve performance. In fact, rewards disrupted task completion.

This led Harlow to identify a third drive in human motivation:

1. The first drive for behaviours is survival. We drink, eat and copulate to ensure our survival.

2. The second drive is to seek rewards and avoid punishment.

3. The third drive is intrinsic: to achieve internal satisfaction.

But Harlow’s theory was met with disdain from the behavioural scientists who dominated motivational theory at the time. It took almost two decades for scientists to return their attention to intrinsic drives.

In his book, Pink describes three critical conditions for an intrinsic motivational environment:

1. Autonomy: Give people autonomy over what they’re doing and how they do it, including choosing their time, tasks, team and techniques.

2. Mastery: Give them an opportunity to master their work and make progress through deliberate practice.

3. Purpose: Make sure people have a sense of purpose in their work — preferably to something higher and beyond their job, salary and company.

People are most productive when their work puts them in what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a state of flow — more commonly recognised as being “in the zone”. Flow can be achieved only when leaders provide autonomy, time to practice and improve mastery, and a sense of higher purpose.

Sadly, intrinsic motivation theories aren’t palatable to everyone. Our notions of what constitutes proper motivation are often too entrenched to be flexible. Some companies have given lip service to worker “empowerment,” without actually letting go of control.

Many leaders will resist giving up their carrots, and many workers will find it hard to imagine a world without incentives. But leaders who can implement intrinsic motivation can expect a whole new workplace — and an entirely new definition of work.

With thanks to: Coach2Coach newsletter, March 23 2010.

Last Updated ( Monday, 29 March 2010 21:40 )