Nowadays, when Human Capital has gained relevance and recognition in competitive organizations, many are the tools and techniques used to achieve the best performance and development of employees within an organization in order to generate competitiveness and value, a One of the most important of them is motivation.When talking about staff motivation in organizations and companies, we are presented with many ideas and good intentions that arise from the organizations themselves.However, do you wonder how many times this is manifested in the acts?.
For this reason, motivation in people begins with the appearance of a series of internal and external stimuli that make some needs feel, when these are specified in a specific desire, they guide activities or behavior in the direction of achieving certain needs. objectives, capable of satisfying the needs.
For Gary Dessler 1979: “Motivation reflects a person's desire to fill certain needs. Since the nature and strength of specific needs is a very individual matter, it is obvious that we are not going to find any universal guidelines or methods to motivate people ”(DESSLER, Gary (2001): Personnel Management, (8th ed.), Pearson Prentice Hall Hispanoamericana., México, DF)
To act with commitment and effort, people need to be adequately stimulated. In this regard, I remember a quote from the writer Truman Capote: "Whoever does not imagine is like someone who does not sweat, stores poison." (New Orleans, USA, 1924-Los Angeles, 1984) American novelist).
When it comes to staff motivation in companies or organizations, many of them promote and advertise slogans aimed at extolling or magnifying their excellence in dealing with the components of their workforce, but the real question would be, how many times does this manifest itself? in fact with the treatment of its Human Capital?
It is everyday that many companies and their managers in particular, pretend to value the employees of their companies, while the real concerns are strictly directed to financial resources.
One of the trends in many companies is mistakenly obsessed with having the minimum number of employees at the lowest possible cost, thereby believing that they manage their costs well. The latter is not entirely uncertain, nor is it that a dismissal is no longer a cost. However, if it is not possible to obtain the best of an employee or manager in terms of effort, dedication, contribution and results, it will not be managed well and money will be wasted in the same way, as well as the important resource of time, which is unrecoverable.
Many leaders, such as academics, as well as the experiences expressed and illustrated in many articles, forums, or conferences and a large number of examples around the world prove that motivation contributes to exponentially increase the productivity of an organization.
There is a lot of news about the inability of Western companies to motivate their staff, there is the classic declaration of intent made by the president of Sony, who said with all serenity: “We are going to win and you cannot do anything to prevent it. because you carry within yourselves the causes of your failure ”.
Abraham J. Maslow (Brooklyn, New York, April 1, 1908 - June 8, 1970) was an American humanist psychologist, he defined a series of needs that man tries to satisfy: physiological needs, security, adherence, fulfillment, estimates. According to this, these needs are almost always manifested one after another, when one need is satisfied we try to satisfy another. Although it is not an absolute rule, in certain cases we can simultaneously pursue needs of different levels.
Maslow defined in his pyramid the basic needs of the individual, placing the simplest needs at the base of the pyramid and the most fundamental ones at the top of the pyramid.
As needs are being satisfied or achieved, others of a higher level arise. Maslow's motivation:
“Maslow offers us several keys in the field of motivation. If we want to motivate the people around us, we must find what needs they have satisfied and try to facilitate the achievement of the next higher level.
Since in the West our most basic needs are generally satisfied, needs of a higher level come into play, that is, of esteem and fulfillment.
In this sense, the question we can ask ourselves is: What is the real that motivates us?
F. Herzberg, ((1923 - 2000) was a renowned psychologist who became one of the most influential men in the administrative management of companies.
He is especially recognized for his theory of job enrichment and the theory of Motivation and Hygiene). It considered work itself to be the main motivating factor, based on an analysis carried out on the reactions of 1,685 employees of different levels, nationalities and sectors, faced with different incidents.
The need for accomplishment, progress and being recognized at work can only be satisfied if the management style of the company allows a work organization in which the staff find the necessary motivating factors.
Tom Peters (born November 7, 1942 in Baltimore. He studied civil engineering at Cornell University and later economics at Stanford University where he obtained an MBA and Ph.D. In 2004 he received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Management in Moscow He is a business management guru from the 70s to today) did not doubt about it: "It's absurd! And the examples are not missing, the average employee is capable of lifting mountains, now you have to ask them and create a favorable climate ”that is the key.
Some recent studies in Human Management show to what extent it is motivating for staff to carry out initiatives such as "being kept up to date" from management through good communication and information from staff, as well as how demotivating and negative it is. be put aside.
The best and easiest way to find out what motivates or demotivates a staff member in a competitive organization is to ask them directly. In the United Kingdom, certain public service services organize motivational interviews during which hierarchical superiors ask their collaborators about their current and previous role, achievements, satisfactions, aspirations, so that they better understand what motivates them. These initiatives have a very positive influence on the feeling of being important and recognized by management as an important part of it.
Let's never forget that a company is nothing more than the sum of the people and capabilities that compose it, mobilizing that unlimited potential can be exciting and the results unimaginable.
Pretend to cite in these brief lines, all the initiatives or efforts deployed to stimulate motivation would require more space and time, however, the above seems clear to me: the Human Capital of a company, whichever is indistinct, is who in Ultimately, it will start up with all the resources of this (administrative, financial, physical and technical). So why deny them being the best ally of those who administer them? From my experience and training efficient and competitive organizations, this no longer becomes an option, but rather, in the dynamics of the times that are still going faster every day, motivation is already an obligation of management and good practices, from which employers or rectors who have responsibilities over other people cannot escape.
"Character is the internal motivation to do the right thing, whatever the cost."
Source: Motivation and people of Antonio García Tafalla (www.rrhhmagazine.com)
