The authors of that survey had also been completing another, multiyear study tracking, among other things, motivation levels of hundreds of “knowledge” workers.
What the multi year study found was that the factor that the managers had ranked last, was in fact the most motivating factor for the actual workers. The workers had ranked “progress” as the most motivating factor. The article said “On days when workers have the sense they’re making headway in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps them overcome obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak.”
Conversely, “On days when they feel they are spinning their wheels or encountering roadblocks to meaningful accomplishment, their moods and motivation are lowest.”
These results are good for managers.
It turns out that that control of the motivation factor is largely within the manager’s grasp. This is a good thing because it can be manipulated in everyone’s best interests. It also means that managers don’t necessarily have to have great and complicated incentive schemes to engender a good and motivating work environment.
It is largely within managers’ control to provide meaningful goals, encouragement to achieve those goals and resources to get things done. It is also worthy of note that managers can also fail to provide these factors and this is likely to demotivate their staff. Significantly within a manager’s sphere of influence is the ability to deflect irrelevant demands which can cause demotivation.
The strongest advice the authors of the article (and the report) could offer is that managers should do nothing that unilaterally changes goals; do not be indecisive; and very importantly do not hold up the resources necessary for the workers to get their job done.
It was found that negative events have a greater effect on people’s emotions, perceptions, and motivation than positive events. It is critically important, that the negatives are avoided if at all possible.
By way of conclusion the article also mentioned that the factor long recognised as the most motivating factor – “recognition” does still play a part in motivating people. What has to be remembered is that unless there is progress there is potentially nothing to recognise. They believe that managers can ensure that there is progress every day but that recognition should happen as it is justified which will be significantly less frequently.
