Employee Motivation - a Powerful New Model

Employee Motivation 

A Powerful New Model

by Nitin Nohria, Boris Groysberg, and Linda-Eling Lee

In this article Nitin Nohria, Boris Groysberg and Linda-Eling Lee explores the question how to get the best from employees by enhancing their motivation within the organization. Employee satisfaction has been the field of researchers for centuries where thinkers such as Aristotle, Adam Smith, Freud or Maslow tried to decrypt this puzzle. The main question is then what exactly can managers do to increase employee’s motivation.

In this synthesis, it is explained that motivation depends on four basic emotional needs and then actions must be taken trough them, they are:

• The drive to acquire
• The drive to bond
• The drive to comprehend
• The Drive to defend

This model of Employee satisfaction has been held by two simultaneous researches, in one the survey includes 385 employees of two global businesses (A financial services giant and a leading IT services firm). In the second, the survey concerned 300 Fortune 500 companies. Writers’ concluded that to increase motivation, the four main drives had to be applied through the organizational levers (Reward system, Culture management, Job design, Performance management and Resource-Allocation processes) and had to be executed at the same time as they were independent from one another.

In this article, the writers explain the four emotional drives must be fulfilled by meeting with different organizational lever:

• The first one is about reward system which includes the drive to acquire by giving opportunities to employees by recognizing individual performance. If an employee performs well he will be able to acquire scarce goods from the company enhancing his motivations.
• Culture management includes the drives to bond via stimulating camaraderie, teamwork, collaboration and friendship within the organization. Humans have a natural tendency to become attached to their closest cohort and boost their motivations and their proudness. For example, in the article, Wegmans supermarket chain focused on setting a familial tone creating the feeling of being cared about and enhancing the sense of teamwork and belonging.
• Job design is focusing on the drive to comprehend. By designing meaningful and challenging jobs, the employee won’t experience a routine and motivates them. In the article, the writers take the example of Le Cirque du soleil that encourage their performers to train in new and different shows to learn new skills and to create a dynamic and relationship with other employees.
• The last concept is about performance management and resources allocations which includes the drive of defend. By creating fair and transparent processes management it will help the people’s drive to defend. Employees will feel security and confidence in their work and will be able to prepare to change if some happens. RBS and NatWest made sure every employee would understand their objectives and guidelines even if they disagree. Surveys showed that even these people would report that the process is fair and transparent.

The writers explain that these levers must be pushed at once to create an overall response from the processes but nevertheless the organization doesn’t have the monopole in improve employee’s motivation when employees think their direct bosses have the same amount of weight to enhance motivation. Direct bosses can create a climate of teamwork and collaboration even thought the culture of the company isn’t focus on it.