Week 7: Motivation in the Workplace
Preliminary scientific research suggests that employees brains release higher doses of serotonin, a feel-good hormone, after receiving support, attention, or praise from their manager. This can be linked with higher motivation in working, improved teamwork by a desire to help others, and an increased openness to new ideas. Alternatively, when managers are critical of an employee’s efforts, treating him or her unfairly, or fails to acknowledge their worth, it can increase levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. This can make the employee question their ideas and be unwilling to step up or stand out. All employees need an optimal balance of motivation and stress to work hard and produce the best results. A small amount of stress can lead you to meet deadlines and be practical. A large amount of job satisfaction and motivation can lead you to work beyond the minimal requirements and to excel as an employee.
While the evidence from scientific studies is minimal, I believe that is due to the difficulty in studying work environments due to the Hawthorne effect and that this phenomenon truly does occur. In my personal experience, I realize that I am more motivated to work when I am in a good mood. When my manager has complimented my work, I am more likely to continue working hard to produce similar compliments. I would recommend that managers follow this concept of “shooting” their employees with serotonin. While they may not truly have a serotonin boost, I believe the improved employee moral or improved guidance towards a goal will still have the desired impact on productivity and job satisfaction.
While you cannot make “fun” mandatory, I do believe that creating a culture where employees can make their own fun is valuable. Anything required by your manager is suddenly work not pleasure, but having the opportunity to opt into fun environments or giving employees a small budget to do team building activities could be a great motivator and serotonin boost. In this sense, making the decision at the top to have a more fun work environment but leaving flexibility for the lower ranks to make the decision could have tremendous results in improving the work environment.
With economic downturn making material rewards impractical for organizations, I think managers can still inspire and motivate without committing money. Telling an employee that their ideas are valued and that the work they have been producing is excellent is a free conversation. Furthermore, creating a “Teammate of the Week” award that recognizes success of individual employees in front of their peers may be a valuable motivator. If rewards such as a reserved parking spot for employees that have been above average are available, that could be a free benefit. Furthermore, I believe that the social interactions such as rewarding positive behaviors in the workplace with equal frequency to which negative behaviors are acknowledged, that employees would be trained to be a better employee.
Similarly, I believe instructors could use a similar motto. If positive comments were given regularly about students successes and constructive criticism consistently educates students on their areas of improvements, the students would know exactly how to improve these skills. Creating a culture where constructive criticism is well received and viewed purely as a way to help students learn and compliments on successes are given as often as appropriate, the dialogue between students and teachers could be more focused on learning and less focused directly on the grade received for the task.
