Intrinsic Motivational Techniques

Posted in Business Management, Human Resource, Principles of Management, Training & Development on Feb 26th, 2014 | 0 comments

Following are some of the intrinsic motivational techniques employed by the organisations to boost the morale of the employees and thus the productivity.

1. Job Design

Arranging work elements to form tasks and a combination of such tasks to form a job is called as job design. Here the focus is on the job.

2. Job Redesign

Here the work elements are rearranged into meaningful tasks and combining such tasks to form work modules is the principle behind job redesigning.

Each work module is assigned to the respective worker who is capable of performing it efficiently and number of such modules can be combined to form a whole job which is assigned to a group to improve their intrinsic motivation. Here the focus is on the individual workers.

3. Work Modules

Work module can be defined as one that is being completed approximately in two hours time. In an eight hours shift there will be four such work modules.

Employees are motivated not merely by pay and perks; there should be something more to the job , more challenging and meaningful.

The following are some of the methods of job redesign that provide the expected challenge and meaning.

Types of Job Redesigning

A.  Job Rotation

Monotonous work makes an employee dull and in order to motivate the employees, the management can think of what is called Job Rotation.

To rotate the person or persons from job to job, from time to time.

The job to which he is rotated should match his attributes, level of hierarchical position in the organization and compatible with his competence and experience.

BENEFITS OF JOB ROTATION:

• Reduces boredom
• Increases motivation
• Increases Employment flexibility
• Adds experience to a worker’s career
• Increases training motivation

LIMITATIONS OF JOB ROTATION

• Lot of time is consumed as workers need to be trained to suit the new job
• As well increases training cost
• If the worker does not fit in the new job, he has to continue his routine work which can create a sense of inferiority and loss of morale
• Reduced productivity during transition period
• Demotivates ambitious employees who seek steady employment
• It is generally believed that job rotation reduces turnover of employees in an organization.

 B. Job Enlargement

When a job is expanded horizontally, job enlargement occurs.

For example, when an accountant is entrusted with additional responsibilities of following up of orders, dispatch and payments, his job is said to be enlarged.

He has to take up variety of tasks and job activities other than book keeping.

BENEFITS OF JOB ENLARGEMENT

• Increases one’s area of responsibility
• Aids in growth and versatility
• Flexibility in deployment

LIMITATIONS OF JOB ENLARGEMENT

• The criticism is, whether  there is improvement in the quality of work is a question mark; the workers line of thinking may be like this” Instead of one lousy job, now I have many”!
• Does not add challenging or meaningful work.

 C. Job Enrichment

When the job expands vertically, it is called job enrichment.

If a person is made to involve in quality work, in other words management functions like planning, co-ordinating, controlling  and decision-making, it is said to enrich him in terms of experience and expertise.

Guidelines for Job Enrichment:

Combine tasks

When certain tasks are combined to form work modules, it increases skill variety and task identity.

ERP or ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING is a job entity that combines production, marketing, finance, human resource and logistics departments in one go.

The software connects all the departments in such a fashion that when an order is placed by a customer, the stock existence, current price of the product, credibility of the customer, delivery schedule are available for the executives of the concerned department in their systems simultaneously so that decisions could be quickly made.

Time is saved as the order need not be passed on from department to department thanks to the availability of common information to all the departments at the same time.

Create Natural Work Units

Meaningful and wholesome job is the need of the hour to reduce monotony and boredom.

• Established Client Relationships: Customer relationship management is what that decides the fate of your product movement.
• Delegation of Authority and Responsibility: Proper delegation of authority and responsibility to the persons deputed with additional responsibilities facilitate efficient and effective performance on the part of the employees.
• Proper Feedback: Performance appraisal is very significant which helps the employee to know where he stands in comparison with his fellow workers and also aids him to rectify and improve his standards.