At this present time I go to work solely to earn money to buy goods, driving lessons and to go out with. Obviously this will be different in the future when I leave home. This is due to my parents providing food, clothing and other essential survival items. I do get a certain amount of job satisfaction from talking to customers and when I fill the shop up and looks much better, especially when people comment on the way the shop looks. Another factor, which helps me become motivated to work, is having a good boss, who allows flexibility and understanding.
Which is vitally needed because I often go out on Friday nights and I work on Saturday mornings. In exchange for this flexibility I have to often work in school holidays. My first job was for the local paper. This showed that although for a 13 year old the pay was not too bad other factors came into play that either motivated me or de-motivated me. The main one was in the summer the job was great and I could do it at any time in the day because of my free time in the holidays and the weather was also fine, this motivated me to get my paper round completed.
The factors that de-motivated me was that in winter after a hard day at school I wasn’t really wanting to do a paper round in the dark and cold streets of Otley. I have found that when I go to work I fall into both theories x and y categories this is because I am motivated to work to earn money, I sometimes enjoy work. I do not fall into the theory x category at all this is because I can be responsible and have ambition. This is shown in how my first job I earned very little, and now earn much more. The factor which helped get my current job was that I was motivated enough to work in a harder environment.
I show responsibility by being reliable and also completing a qualification in retail to make me more qualified to complete my work every week. Theory x is mainly based around punishment i. e. threats, allow one downside of threats is that they only work if the employee believes they will actually carry them out. Theory x is mainly used for people lower down in the chain i. e. shop floor workers while theory y is mainly used with managerial staff. My appendix fully explains just how McGregor explains the difference between a person X and a person Y. In the Independent a bankeri??
s union wrote, the lower down the ladder you are, the less control you have over your work environment. But to motivate the work force the more they get a say in their environment. The more productive they will become. Conclusion / Evaluation: From the results of my questionnaire I can draw many conclusions. It states that 85% of people I asked classed themselves as being well motivated, this shows that someone somewhere is showing they have knowledge of what motivates people to work. This is probably themselves as 80% thought they were responsible for their own motivation.
Despite Fredrick Taylor’s theory being proved successful as money as the only motivator to work. This does not apply to all jobs as I stated earlier. The people in the factory probably purely for money as it was labour work. It was not a great paying job and the workers were probably from a poor background and were in need of money. This was a way to help them live more comfortable lives. But I believe that I have proved my hypothesis wrong. There are many more important factors that motivate people in the workplace.
From my results I have found that people think that job satisfaction is the single most important factor that motivates in the workplace. This can be linked to the need for a high self-esteem. If they have high self-esteem they will have good job satisfaction. Increasing the motivation and productivity in the work place. Maslow also saw the need for esteem in the work place. This is explained fully in maslows hierarchy of needs in my appendix. Herzberg also recognised that job satisfaction was the greatest motivator. He used motivators such as achievement, recognition, responsibility and job growth.
He was the person I believe knew most about motivating people. This is because he also realised that pay wasn’t a motivator it was one of his hygiene factors along with working conditions and status. It isn’t a motivator but is a de-motivator. This is fully explained in my appendix. Another main factor to motivation in the work place is the actual working environment. 90% of people thought their environment effected the motivation of the workforce. Mayo showed this was a big motivator in the workplace. (see appendix).
It also helps if the workers get a say in their working environment.Eg. – A work force will work better in a new fancy office, which they designed, rather than an old dirty factory. The environment is both a motivator and de-motivator. As a final conclusion pay is a big motivator. But I believe that job satisfaction is the greatest motivator which is linked to self-esteem. But pay is one of the more minor motivators along with environment, recognition, power and other minor motivators. But I think we can only take what is the greatest motivator to the majority of the workers. We need to remember everyone has different motivational needs.
