Motivation Solution Essay

Motivation is the real driving force of a company that culminates the entire work force of a company into one tireless engine that runs on towards success. However, it is easier said than done to achieve that flow of motivation in a company – because it takes relentless effort from the management to keep every component of the organization motivated. Therefore, I felt really happy as an organizational consultant, when the CEO of â€Å"The Altitude Corporation†, Mr. David had sought my assistance to assess and recommend ways and means to improve the state of LOB (Leadership and Organizational Behavior) in his esteemed company. It made me happy on another account that I could successfully pinpoint the problem areas and specific solutions for them and I’m sure that the application of such solutions would definitely make a difference to the future performance of the organization. Therefore, this paper is presented to â€Å"The Altitude Corporation† as part of the blueprint of the detailed, employee-based analysis, which deals with motivation problem of the company. Here I’ve embedded the nuances of motivation with the problem areas to provide an enhanced understanding of motivation and its relation with the company. However, the brief of the problems found in the motivation sector is placed below: The Problem An exhaustive study on the motivational state of the 350 employees of the organization is showing that there is serious lack of motivation among the employees, which is the cumulative effect of various factors.   These factors have been mentioned along with possible solutions and detailed discussion in this report, besides discussion on the topic to enhance better understanding about the problems of the company. What is Motivation? Background: Altitude Corporation is a budding company with 350 employees on its roll at present, where most of the departments are interdependent in executing the various levels of operation. Therefore it is necessary to understand the key concepts of motivation to apply them towards motivating the employees. Motivation is the guiding spirit behind the execution of a chosen action, where it helps to achieve the desired result out of that action. Now this guiding spirit is actually backed by some grand essentials of happiness – which form the core of all living being’s reasoning for survival or to develop – as the management guru Shiv Khera says, motivation is a â€Å"drive that encourages action or feeling. It is a force that can literally change your life† (Khera 2004). Motivation Philosophy in Workplace Environment It may seem that motivation is an automated process, and humans have nothing to meddle into it – but it is the degree of its intensity that determines the level of one’s achievement and from this perspective motivation is a very important factor in human life, which is multidimensional and is not limited to manage just a living for a good number of years. Thus, at the primary level motivation is essential for existence, and in its secondary level, it is essential to develop further on aesthetic, emotional or esoteric plane of existence. Likewise, one might have many goals spread out at various levels of his/her existence and thus requires all of his/her power of body and mind. Here motivation would be that essential catalyst to synchronize the body and mind power of that individual, which would heighten the emotion and passion to achieve all such goals. In this context, motivation philosophy is an extremely important in workplace, because all or most of the primary or secondary goals of the employees are either directly or indirectly attached to the success of his/her workplace, which is totally dependent on the motivated action of the employees themselves. Thus it will be pertinent to incorporate motivation theories that have evolved out of workplace environment and I have chosen four such theories for better understanding of the subject from various angles, besides showing the correlations among them and the proceedings of the Altitude Corporation. Motivation Theories Theory 1: Hierarchy of Needs This theory of Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)[1] provides an outline of human needs that a manager should know and exploit to motivate the employees, because motivation is guided by unfulfilled needs. Thus Maslow’s model of ‘needs’ is invaluable to systematically pursue the needs while keeping the flow of motivation intact. Maslow’s model (Abraham, 2006) divides the human needs into five broad based categories and they are: 1. Physiological Needs: Air, Water, Nourishment and Sleep – these are the basic needs of humans and a company should take care that the employees are having all these in proper measure. It’s only after meeting this need, humans can look towards sustenance, and thus arrives the need like Safety need. 2. Safety Needs: This need covers the issues of safety in both living and in workplace, medical insurance, job security and financial backup. Company should try to contribute in all of these areas with the view that the problem in any of these areas takes away the focus of the employees. This provides much needed mental space and time to the employees, where they can afford to pursue another vital need like Social Need. 3. Social Needs: Group activities, socialization, or enhanced interpersonal communication are the elements that fulfill the social needs and which are well within the ambit of a company to imbibe in the employees, where they form a sense of belonging, which paves the way for the next need, that is Esteem Need. 4. Esteem Needs: At this stage humans turn their focus on esteem that involves recognition and social status, at the outer world and self-respect or sense of achievement in one’s own mind. This creates the platform to pursue the self-realization process, which is a unique and endless process, where one can bask in the endless discoveries about oneself. Maslow had named this ultimate need of humans as Self-actualization. It is thus understood, that an employee would reach his/her highest point of regard about the company, if it can help him/her to reach this state. 5. Self-actualization: Every human life is ideally poised to pursue this need where one can delve deep within and keep on discovering oneself from many perspective both on mental and physical plane – it is something like playing in one’s own garden – in Maslow’s words, â€Å"Self-actualized persons have frequent occurrences of peak experiences, which are moments of profound happiness and harmony† (Maslow’s, 2008).