Question

You are a supervisor or manager. Are there some people who simply can’t be motivated at work? Discuss.

Answer 1

At a worplace, it can't be said about a person that he/she can't be motivated.

Firstly, I would describe what motivation is?

Motivation has following key characteristics:

1) Motivated person will be directed towards goal set by him/her: Example, At the workplace employee sets a goal of achieving something (completing certain tasks) or getting promotion. Then the desire of achievement or promotion acts as motivation.

2) Motivate person will keep strategizing to reach the goal: Success adds to motivation i.e, to continue the pursuit of reaching your goal. But if we encounter obstables/difficulties in achieving our goal, then one needs to change strategy and continue moving in the direction of the goal.

3) External environment affects motivation: If the environment is not supportive or acts as obstacles thus stopping one from reaching his goal, then motivation will be low.

4) The more one is motivated greater are his/her chances to reach the goal: The ones who keeps improving, innovating, putting extra hours and be persistent (when faces with obstables) will reach the goal

So, as stated in point 3) above, if the work environment is not supportive then one will not be motivated and will not reach the goal. Normally, at the workplace, Managers try to make the staff work/perform certain task which is not particularly of staff (him/her) interest. But not all the staff would like to do the thing which the manager is asking them to do. So, some of the staff may not be able to perform the task hence they perform badly. Managers try to give extrinsic motivation such as bonuses, holidays etc. But the staffs keep lacking the interest to work. So, what is it that the manager should do?

The Manager should match Company's objective with Staff's intrinsic motivation. This can be done by following below methods;

(i) Giving freedom/flexibility to the staff to work in their desired way

(ii) Encouraging participation in team meeting

(iii) Asking staff's for suggestion on how to improve the business objective/goal?

(iv) Asking staff for their workplace needs and fulfilling those needs

Hence, I am sure if a Manager follows the above four mentioned points, then everyone at the workplace will be motivated.