The work of the individual constitutes one of the keys to the course of his life, as well as his being and his social identity. In the past centuries and especially when the culture of Greece and Rome flourished before the birth of Jesus Christ, work as such did not occupy as high a place as it does in the United States today. The truth was that those at the top of the social rank did not believe they had to work, since work was primarily confined to slaves to free citizens without resources. The citizen of Greece felt no need to apologize to his contemporaries why he did not work, as many people do today who could very easily save themselves from having to work.
In the Middle Ages, work acquired multiple religious connotations. The work clearly constituted a duty, to fulfill the predestined call of each one. Not working was immoral.
Today we accept work as part of a healthy and normal life. All the psychological, economic and social rewards derived from active employment make people feel that they are deprived of something if they do not have the opportunity to work in tasks that provide them with such rewards.
At the same time, there are certain opposing tendencies in contemporary life. The shorter work week, coupled with the prediction of the four-week work week, is likely to diminish the importance attached to work within generations. Free-time occupations are constantly increasing in importance as sources of satisfaction.
Although work itself is less important as a source of satisfaction, today most people still expect more from their job than job satisfaction such as pay, safety, and improvement.
It costs little to forget the very fact that work meets the human needs of modern society. The importance of work in modern life is suggested to us by the effects of unemployment and retirement on workers who have been active and productive for decades.
Simplification of work is the application of common sense to find the cheapest way to use human effort, materials, machines, time and space, so that simpler ways of doing work can be used.
If this job is unsatisfactory, he may be truly frustrated with results that will be costly, both for him and for whoever provides the job. An unhappy employee spreads his misery to the family and the community. Low morale leads to inefficiency, low production, and discontent. In other words, everyone loses.
In the largest organizations in our society, employee motivation is a difficult problem.
The good approach is not much more useful, it may help recruit employees, but it does little to motivate once they are in possession of their job. People rarely work out of gratitude. This approach, too, provides little incentive to produce more than the minimum return necessary to avoid layoff.
Bargaining seems to be a more realistic approach, particularly in situations where there is a union involved, it creates an environment of live and let live.
Exaggerated competition can undo teamwork and lead to frustration and a legion of undesirable side effects, it also emphasizes job satisfaction.
The most promising approach to motivations is general supervision, in which management seeks to provide opportunities for meeting needs at work.
General supervision gives subordinates an opportunity to make agreements for themselves and allows supervisors to focus on teaching them better about their work.
We can consider motivation as the result of an urge or tension to move from a given direction or to achieve certain goals. We can also say that after having achieved something, we receive an internal retribution that affects the selection of the next series of events that are going to be undertaken. There is no doubt that these activities have a foundation of biological need. However, the adult has grown and developed within the complex of our cultural influences. Therefore, the facts that can stimulate performance are conditioned on what has been learned to be considered worthy of being achieved. We can say that the executive no longer works to have something to eat, but rather, that he eats to work.
The existence of innumerable codes and guides adopted by numerous associations, both professional and commercial, is further evidence that ethicists are generally accepted and desired, it must be added that party and government groups are developing efforts to get them used clear, honest and fair practices that are considered basic in the performance of administrative functions.
The administrator therefore must maintain interest in the value or merit of the facts that he observes and in which they participate. His values are a primary factor in the decisions he makes and the direction he pursues as the leader of a company.
