Wednesday, February 23, 2011

You Can't Change People

You Can't Change People


This was an interesting take on how to deal with employees and people in general. The article said that you can't change people, but you can motivate them to change their behavior. The article says, "no you can’t change other people. But what you can do is change what they are reacting too and change the rewards structure that they receive." So basically it claims that only a person can change themselves not an outside source, but an outside source can direct them to act a certain way with certain motivators. In the article it also tells about a young boy who is late everyday. The teacher told the class that every morning at the beginning of the day she would give a question and answer to the next test. The boy was never late again. 


Motivation plays such and important part in the workforce. No matter where you work there is going to be lazy employees or unhappy people who are not performing their jobs to the best of their abilities. So the manager needs to think of some ways to motivate those workers. Here are some suggestions from the article. First you need to identify the behavior that needs to be fixed. Then figure out what motivates that specific person, such as praise, special assignments, criticism, and if possible financial incentives. The article goes on to explain ways you can fix certain employee problems such as whiners, attention seekers, and Procrastinating employees. 


Overall, this article is really informative on ways on motivate employees and it was interesting because it was sort of a different way to look at motivation. Obviously motivation is important and all managers need to know how to get their employees to perform their jobs as best as they can. 


Posted By: Jacob Cyscon

Employees Life Outside of Work

Former CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Brian G. Dyson takes an interesting view when thinking about his employees. In his own words each person has five parts of their life they have to juggle. Work, Family, Spirit, Friends and Health. The one that he views the least important, shockingly, is work. He compares these areas of life to juggling balls and that work is a rubber ball but the rest are glass. The connection that Dyson made was that you can drop the rubber ball and it will bounce back however you cannot drop the glass balls for they will never be the same.

Understanding that his employees have a life outside of work is one of the reasons why Dyson was successful as his role at CEO in the Coca Cola company. Dyson's belief led him to realize that the most important thing is to inspire and motivate skilled employees and to treat them as individuals. By doing so this motivates them to perform better because they believe that they are cared for both as professionals and as human beings.

I think that the strategy that Dyson applied to Coca Cola back in the 90's was a step in the right direction for major corporations all over the globe. By such a large company setting the precedent for the "right" kind of motivation it inspires other companies big and small to imitate them. If something is working for a competitor then why should you not copy it yourself.

Posted By: Michael Ziegler

The Importance of Combining Intrinsic and Extrinsic Incentives

The phenomenon that companies need to pay their employees for good performance has proved to not necessarily be true. Although all companies obviously need to pay their employees for the work that they do, it is not the most important factor in motivation. In order to receive the best performance from employees, companies should combine intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Not only should employees be compensated with payment for their performance but they also need to feel accomplished to truly be motivated.
Studies have been done that show employees who feel a connection with others at work along with a sense of accomplishment and achievement from completing tasks are much more motivated overall. It is no longer enough for companies to reward bonuses as compensation, these rewards do not speak to a person’s psychological needs. For companies to truly get the best performance out of their employees they need to tap into each individual’s creativity, allowing them to feel that their personal values are aligned with those of the organization. When intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are combined the outcome is much more effective to the organization than when either reward is given alone.
Which reward, intrinsic or extrinsic, is more important in motivating you to complete a task?
Posted By: Lesley Pfeifer

Motivation For Free

Employee Motivation You Can't Buy

As we have discussed in class, salary and other hygiene factors are usually enough to keep employees from becoming dissatisfied with their jobs but not enough to provide actual job satisfaction. In order for employees to truly become satisfied with their job, they need to feel a sense of pride for the work they are doing and appreciation from their co-workers and managers, among a few other things. When employees feel as if their managers truly appreciate the work they do and even have a personal relationship with those leaders, they are more likely to enjoy their job and be motivated to stay at the company.

Throughout this article, motivation to stay at a company is discussed. Although it is very tempting for any employee to leave a company for its competition, especially if the competition may be offering more compensation and better benefits, they are less likely to do so if they feel a personal relationship to their present manager. When managers remain honest and concerned for their employees, as Eisenhower did with his troops, both parties feel a better sense of equality and motivation. Both equality and motivation are factors that will indeed lead to job satisfaction.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Do Employee Incentives Programs Work?

Posted by:  David Harbeck


The article starts out with “when businesses motivate and reward employees with incentive programs, both the management and staff win.”  I feel that this statement is true, but it can also lead to poor performance as well.  The positive effects of properly motivating employees include increase productivity as well as a nice work atmosphere; however, it can also have negative effects such as employees thinking the incentives only are attainable by certain employees.  The features, types, effects, benefits, and the enforcement policy of incentives need to all be fair and in clear detail describing how to receive incentives.  I feel that this is important so that all employees try to attain the incentives offered hence it would increase true productivity.  The expectancy theory should be applied to this due to the higher outs of performance will lead to a desirable outcome.  However, an employee can try their best and not receive the outcome desired.  An incentives program should also have been based upon a “cost benefit analysis” so that the employees and the organization are actually both rewarded.  Overall, I feel that if an incentives program is clearly defined and attainable through high productivity by employees, this should be a key factor in motivating the employees.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Motviaton Techniques from Fortunes 500 Companies

Fortune 500 motivation techniques

With so many motivational tools available, these tools really stood out to me because they are used by some of the biggest companies in the world. These companies know what it takes to get their employees motivated and keep them working. One technique they use is by making sure employees are balancing their personal and work life so that work doesn't dominate their entire life. Another big thing they do is that they reimburse a lot of employees who go to school and offer to pick up some of the tuition for employees who are going back to school. To me that would be a big incentive because with the costs of school going up each year it is nice to know that there are some ways to reduce the costs.

Other ways are they make pick up some of the employees living costs as an incentive for people who are performing really well. For example, they might give a discounted gym membership to employees who are really doing a great job. I think that this would be a big factor for me because if some of my personal living costs were covered by the company I work for I believe that would be a big incentive for me to want to work harder?



Do you agree with this article? What things motivate you to work harder?

-Brian Cullum team 7

The Secret to Getting Employees to Worker Harder

Motivation Secret

Numerous articles are out there that discuss ways employees can be motivated and ways to keep their work moral up. Although, I cam across this article that talked about the best way to motivate employees. That way is to simply NOT motivate your employees. John Roulet explains it best by saying, "When work environments consistently fail to provide the direction, resources and respect employees require, their innate desire to achieve is suppressed or redirected. They experience frustration and a kind of learned helplessness. They become motivated to retain their jobs rather than to perform them in a way that delivers optimal value to the organization"
I believe this to be true because a lot of times it isn't the work that is the problem it is the work environment.

I had a job recently where I enjoyed the work, but the overall environment was demotivating. It was a dark building very dull and not really a place where you feel great to be there. I was basically working to keep my job because I felt very demotivated and felt that it affected my performance. Roulet also goes on to say a big motivation tool is salary. We already the motivation we need by getting paid to work. If that isn't motivation for someone then Roulet explains that it may be time to take that person off the payroll.

What do you think is money the only motivation for people? Or are there other factors as well?

-Brian Cullum team 7

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Creating Motivators

I have worked at a bar for about three years now. Some nights you make a lot of money and other nights you don't make any. Your pay is mostly made through tips so sometimes when it is not busy it can be easy to slack off. Money is the main motivator in this job so when your not making any it can be hard to work hard. Then there is the nights where you just do not feel like working and you lose interest.

The managers at the bar began to notice that the employees were often not motivated at work and had to do something about it. Instead of punishing the employees they came up with some interesting, and effective ways of getting us to stay motivated. We began to have little competitions at work that both benefitted the bar and the employees. For example we had a contest to see which employee could sell the most of a specific product over a month long period. The winner got a gift card for Best Buy. The managers set up a competition this past year where whom they said was the most consistent employee got to go to Las Vegas for the Bar and Nightclub Convention in March. Little things like this definitely got us more focused and motivated to perform good at work.

Sometimes motivating employees with money is not always possible so managers need to think of other ways to get their employees to stay motivated. Employees will respond to other motivators other than money as long as they get some value. I think creating a competition among workers can lead to great motivation because competition gets people to perform better. So as you can see there are many ways to motivate employees and keep them motivated.

Posted By: Jacob Cyscon

Bonuses Are Not Always Motivating Rewards

Bonuses are not always motivating rewards

The study in this article was very interesting and gave light to some facts that sound pretty crazy. Not only did the experiment find that sometimes financial bonuses are not the best ways to motivate people, it even went as far to say it is an inefficient way, in some cases, of motivating employees. The study found that "workers tended to be less productive when they were being rewarded with bonuses, but put in more effort when poor performance could be fined".

This seems very strange to me because I always imagined that the best way to motivate people would be through some sort of financial compensation. To think that money is not always the biggest motivator was a strange notion to grasp when I first read this article. I am still young and have not yet had a career type job, but at the places I have worked, money was the main motivator for me. I think when you get into a job that you might be doing everyday for 10 or 20 years, money might not be the biggest motivator. The most important thing to me would probably be job satisfaction because I would never want to get stuck doing something I did not like. An interesting motivator the article pointed out was doing a clawback program, where when a bonus is given for good performance, it can also be taken away for poor performance. This is a different approach to motivation, but it actually sounds like a good idea to me. It will keep employees from slacking off after they get a bonus or promotion.

Overall, the article opened my eyes to a surprising but understandable view on motivation. It made me realize money may not always be the most effective motivator and companies are always creating new ways to get their employees motivated.

Posted By: Jacob Cyscon

Microsofts Way of Motivation

Microsoft Motivation Techniques

I came across this article on motivation and it really stood out to me on a bunch of different levels. First, this wasn't a typical article about motivation from a no name company. This is a way that Microsoft interprets how to motivate employees and goes into detail the different ways they are able to motivate them. This is also a different way of looking at motivation because it is more of a chart. This is something that would be appealing to visual learners because it would be easier for visual people to look at the chart and better understand it.

I believe, after reading this article, that it is true that there are certain levels of motivation. Not everyone is a skilled motivator and there are times where people who think they are motivating their employees are actually demotivating them. I agree with this chart in that that there are specific levels of motivation and that not everyone is on the same level.  I think it was also a good idea to put ideas and warning signs that employees may be over motivating there employees. To run a successful business, one needs to be able and keep their employees moving and wanting to work.

While this may seem like an obvious answer, it is often difficult to find the correct and proper way to motivating employees. I believe that motivating your employees is essential for successful business practices. Microsoft gives a lot of great ideas about how to successfully motivate and also ways to not demotive your employees. The real question is if any of these methods are capable of working for every specific business/
What do you think?

-Brian Cullum team 7

McDonald's Motivation

McDonald's Corp. has many reasons for its continued success throughout the globe over the past several decades but what they consider the most crucial is the people. This is not talking about the millions of people who buy their products everyday but instead about the millions of people who are working for the company. McDonalds considers their employee's well being to be a top priority in their business. They have built their empire on the simple foundation that nothing gets done without the people. Therefore McDonalds has adopted unique motivation methods to stay on top of the game in the fast food industry. An article discussing the various ways McDonalds motivates its employees, discusses the ranges from satisfaction of needs, to personal growth. McDonalds wants their employees to flourish in their company.

Within an industry that focuses most of its attention on streamlining and getting tasks done as efficently as possible it is important for McDonalds Corp. to make sure their employees do not become unsatisfied or even worse dissatisfied. McDonalds makes sure to take care of both Hygiene needs to prevent dissatisfaction and motivation needs to provide satisfaction at the workplace.

According to a 2007 article McDonalds bases its motivation strategy off of four key concepts
1. Motivation must be unique to every department of the corporation
2.Each person must have their own specific, and attainable, goals that they are aiming for.
3. The goals that the individuals have should change if necessary and new goals should be made when others are accomplished.
4. The employee's salary must reflect equally the work they have done within the organization

Based off of these four concepts McDonalds has become the top of the fast food industry not only in the United States but globally. For such a big corporation its focusing on the all of the individuals that make it up that is important.

Michael Ziegler
Team 7

Saturday, February 19, 2011

A Little Chat Can Go A Long Way

 A Talk Can Go A Long Way

If your boss came up to you and chatted with you for a few minutes would that motivate you to work harder? Adam Grant a Wharton School of Business Professor believes this to be the case. He did a case where he talked to a group of telephone operators trying to collect money for a school. Before he talked to them they made an average of $185 per day. He briefly talked to them asking them about their studies and over the next month average sales were up to over $500. This may seem hard to believe, but these people were unhappy with their job, worked long hours, and were paid little money. Although, once Grant interacted and talked to his employees and that was all they needed to keep their motivation up.

This is similar to the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs where people need a feeling of belonging. People need to be able feel like they are wanted and that they have a sense that they are wanted. Grant also goes on to say that by showing the employees what exactly the money they are bringing in is going towards; it will also give them a reason to continue bringing in that money. This type of act can be part of the expectancy theory because the effort that these employees are able to put in will will show their performance and in return bring the employees a reward.

I think that this is a creative way to show keep employees motivated because by showing employees what they are really working for will keep them working and continue to do their jobs at a high level. Especially if they know what they are working to accomplish.

My question to everyone is do you believe by simply interacting with employees will continue to keep them motivated? Would this type of motivation motivate you to keep working? Why or why not?

-Brian Cullum team 7

Monday, February 7, 2011

Little Things That Motivate Employees

Posted by:  David Harbeck

Motivating Employees in Tough Times

Even though it may be hard for some businesses to give incentives to their employees such as raises, bonuses, paid vacations, free trips, free gifts and so on, businesses can motivate individuals by doing the "little things."  A simple "thank you" from the boss to an individual in front of the company gives that individual pride, a few minutes in the spotlight, and shows that the boss recognizes quality work.  I feel that the "little things" make a bigger difference when it comes to motivating employees and these can include a simple award to put in their office, time off work when they need it (not paid), free food in the employee break room, and possibly investing in their education or health by paying for it if the company can afford it.  By doing some of these free and cheap motivation tactics, employees are going to feel more motivated to work harder and take pride in the company they work for.  This is important because the cost of hiring and training new employees is expensive and there is a temporary loss of productivity.  As a former supervisor myself, I would always thank my coworkers for a job well done every night and this would bring a great working environment for days to come.  Also, I feel that it is not hard to motivate employees because its simple, doesn't take up a lot of time or money, and just betters the working environment.  After all, I probably would not work for a company where I was never recognized for the work I do.

Motivation in a Different Light

Post by: Brian Cullum

How to Keep Employee's Eye on the Prize

When we think of ways to motivate ourselves what certain things come to mind? Usually it is some type of incentive that employees are striving to achieve. Although, there are many other ways to keep employees motivated and one of those ways was discussed in the article above and how employees stay interested in their work. The author Carmin Gallo says there are 3 words that hold the secret to motivating employees. They are Energized, Believe, and Understand. I found this to be surprising because it is not the typical way of trying to get employees motivated. This is more of a way to have employees better understand why they are working for that company and why they are an important asset to the team. It seems that former CEO of GE Jack Welch rather have employees be motivated by knowing they are contributing to something important. I know that motivation with incentive based techniques may soon lose focus for employees because once they achieve the incentive they have nothing else to motivate them so it's ends up being a temporary thing. Where as being able to appreciate the job you do can last a much longer time. Although, it makes me wonder if this can be useful in all companies. What if someone were already dissatisfied with their job would this technique motivate them? While not everything in life is going to work for everyone it makes me wonder if some motivation techniques could actually demotivate customers.