101 Posts Found

Psychologist Frederick Herzberg’s Two-factor theory… focuses on the idea that the factors that determine job dissatisfaction (“hygiene factors”) are completely separate from those that determine true satisfaction (“motivators”). Insufficient financial compensation, for example, falls into the former camp. But having sufficient compensation will not lead to passion for a job; it just takes away the dissatisfaction. Motivation, according to the theory, is determined not by … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Carmen Nobel, Clayton M. Christensen | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Motivation, Organizational Behavior

When you hire people to work for you, it should be expected that they have a basic level of competence. When you simply recognize people for doing what they are hired to do, it reinforces a culture where the status quo is good enough. If the company is so risk-averse that people aren’t willing to try anything new, while all you do is reward people … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Stephen Shapiro | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Accountability, Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

In business, we tend to spend a lot more time thinking about the problems than the triumphs. People need to know that what they’re doing is making a difference, and that their leaders notice and appreciate their efforts.

Content: Quotation | Author: Irene Rosenfeld | Source: IESE Insight | Subjects: Change Management, Communication, Management, Motivation

When you are doing new things in the organization, bonuses are terrible. Bonuses assume that you know where you are going.

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Compensation, Motivation

Richard S. Wellins, Paul Bernthal, and Mark Phelps of Development Dimensions International wrote in a 2005 article, “for the past two decades we have been trying to realize the benefits of empowerment, teamwork, recognition, people development, performance management, and new leadership styles.“

If you want to know why efforts to engage the workforce have failed so dismally, look again at that list. It contains not a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: James Krohe Jr. | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Motivation, Work

A decade of research on high and low performance teams by psychologist and business consultant Marcial Losada shows just how important it is. Based on Losada’s extensive mathematical modeling, 2.9013 is the ratio of positive to negative interactions necessary to make a corporate team successful. This means that it takes about three positive comments, experiences, or expressions to fend off the languishing effects of one … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Shawn Achor | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

Two questions demand the attention of leaders. The first is familiar: What keeps you up at night? What are the problems that nag at you? The second is less familiar, but even more important: What gets you up in the morning? What keeps you and your people more committed than ever, more engaged than ever, more excited than ever, particularly as the environment around you … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Alan M. Webber, William C. Taylor | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Motivation

In the only scientifically valid study of the motivations of a cross-section of the entire U.S. workforce, researchers unveiled the secret of why leaders…have been able to create working conditions that effectively tap into the deep wellspring of worker motivation. This 2002 survey of 3,000 workers, undertaken by the U.S. Census Bureau, found that there are two main sources of employee motivation, loyalty, commitment, and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: James O’Toole | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Ethics, Management, Motivation

Jim March says there are two very different kinds of logic for making decisions. One is the logic of consequences. We’re great in business at changing behavior by changing consequences. If we want customers to buy more, we lower prices. If we want salespeople to sell more, we increase their bonuses. But the second kind of logic is the logic of identity. Many of the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Chip Heath, Jim March | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Leadership, Management, Motivation

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

Content: Quotation | Author: Joseph Addison | Subjects: Motivation, Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

The problem with most incentive systems is not that they are too complicated — it’s that they don’t explicitly forbid the kind of shenanigans that will inevitably make them unsuccessful.

Content: Quotation | Author: Joel Spolsky | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

Some people seem to have unlimited self-generated morale. These almost always succeed. At the other extreme, there are people who seem to have no ability to do this; they need a boss to motivate them. In the middle there is a large band of people who have some, but not unlimited, ability to motivate themselves. These can succeed through careful morale management (and some luck). … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Paul Graham | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Achievement, Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

Research by a number of leading thinkers in the social sciences, such as Danah Zohar, has shown that when managers and employees are asked what motivates them the most in their work they are equally split among fve forms of impact—impact on society (for instance, building the community and stewarding resources), impact on the customer (for example, providing superior service), impact on the company and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Carolyn Aiken, Scott Keller | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

The most surprising thing was that if terrorists rolled a hand grenade down the middle of a room, all our CIA employees would jump out of their seats and throw their bodies on it to protect everyone else. They would all give up their lives for one another and their country. However, if someone ran into the room and said, ‘I need someone to make … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Gilman Louie | Source: The Wilson Quarterly | Subjects: Innovation, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

Incentives are good in principle, but did Bear Stearns get competent risk management in return for the $4.4 billion bonus pool it distributed in 2006? Does any organization have to give its CEO a $40 million bonus to secure his services? If you pay people enough money to make any future payment beside the point, don’t be surprised when they take vast long-term risks for … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Rumelt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Accountability, Human Resources, Management, Motivation

Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Human Resources, Motivation, Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty…It is staying power, the spirit which endures to the end – the will to win. With it all things are possible, without it everything else…is for naught.

Content: Quotation | Author: George C. Marshall | Subjects: Leadership, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

If you can find people who are good at motivating others and getting the best out of people, they are the ones you want. There are plenty of so-called experts, but not as many great motivators of people.

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Human Resources, Motivation

…you don’t need to know a lot about people’s weaknesses. But you need to know about their strengths. Trying to correct someone’s weaknesses can be a demotivator. People gain confidence when you build on their strengths.

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Leadership, Motivation

People respond almost too well to monetary incentives. That is, ‘firms get what they pay for’, but since these schemes cannot be targeted well, what firms get is often not what they want.

If an organization is going to function well, it should not rely solely on monetary compensation schemes. The ability of organizations to place workers into jobs with which they identify and the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: George Akerlof, Rachel Kranton | Source: Rotman Magazine | Subjects: Motivation, Organizational Behavior