Motivation of staff in small organizations

People working for non profits are mostly very motivated and committed in their jobs. They believe strongly in the mission of the organization they’re working for and are willing to spend a lot of time and effort in reaching the goals. Highly motivated people are important, especially for smaller organizations who have limited resources and much work to do. As a result, keeping these people on board, keeping them motivated is very important for the success of the organization.

Motivation is not measurable, satisfaction on the contrary can be measured and should be measured on regular times (for example during evaluation meetings).
What to do with imbalance between motivation and satisfaction?

People who experience low motivation and low satisfaction should get other tasks within their job or even change jobs. The combination of low motivation and high satisfaction is something we can find in civil servants, not so much in staff working for NGO’s. People with high motivation and low satisfaction risk to burn out. They believe strongly in the organization but due to all kinds of factors like limited financial possibilities, bureaucracy, etc they can experience frustration and unsatisfaction in their jobs. a well developed HRM is important to deal with this. A good job description is a good start to make sure people have realistic expectations about their job. they should know what’s expected. Incentives are also very important. This kind of combination is very often found in NGO’s. The mix between high motivation and high satisfaction is the best and allow people to be productive and happy with their jobs.

People are different and stimuli which motivate one person can have an opposite effect on someone else. Knowing your staff is important in finding the right motivators for them.

What can be motivators for people and how can you increase motivation?
Different theories about motivation have described processes and factors in how people are feeling more are less motivated.

Herzberg’s Hygiene motivation theory
A quick review of Herzberg’s Hygiene motivation theory learned us that motivators are the influences which cause people to feel more satisfied with their work. These motivators could be the satisfaction of a job well done, praise for doing well, being trusted with important tasks, increased responsabilities,
He also recognised the existence of what he called hygiene factors which, if absent, would demotivate people. The interesting aspect is that their presence, even in abundance, does not provide a motivational force. The hygiene factors include: company policy, pay and working conditions, the working environment.
In summary, Herzberg proposed that lasting motivation would only result from job enrichment.

McGregors Theory X and Theory Y
Douglas McGregor was a contemporary of A. H. Maslow and his theory on motivation was related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which will be described below. McGregor’s theory consisted of two sets of assumptions about people and motivation: Theory X and Theory Y.

In Theory X, the conventional view, his researches concluded that management’s traditional view of the workers was based upon the assumptions that management is responsible for organising all aspects of production – money, materials, equipment and people, that people must be directed, motivated and controlled by management and must modify their behaviour to ﬁt the organisation’s needs. In this theory managers also believed that the average person is lazy by nature and works as little as possible, that people lack ambition, dislike responsibility and prefer to be led, that the average worker is self-centred, and indifferent to what the organisation wants and that people are resistant to change and gullible, and not very bright.

Conventional organisational structures, managerial practices and policies reﬂect many of these assumptions. McGregor felt that management by direction failed to provide sufﬁcient motivation of human effort towards achieving organisational objectives.

It failed because direction and control were ineffective in an era when people’s physiological and safety needs were reasonably satisﬁed and whose social, ego and peak achievement needs were predominant.

McGregor therefore advanced a different theory of motivation, based on what he considered were more meaningful assumptions, theory Y. This theory is following the assumption that people are not by nature passively resistant to organisational needs – they become that way as a result of conditioning within the company, that most people can be motivated, have potential for development and the capacity for assuming responsibility. These characteristics are not put there by management, but managers have a responsibility to ensure that people recognise and develop them. And the essential task for the management is to create an environment in which people can achieve their own goals best by directing their own efforts towards organisational objectives.

The Maslow hierarchy of needs
Following studies in the 1940s Abraham Maslow suggested that there was a hierarchy of needs through which human beings progressed.

Level 1: physiological needs are the basic needs to stay alive, like eating and drinking.
Level 2: safety and security and the precautions taken as an answer to this. These needs include clothing, weapons, a residence, …
Level 3: group membership because of the advantages a group has in working together. This need is associated with others and the joy of belonging to a group.
Level 4: ﬁrst among equals. Although belonging to a group is important, the need to stand out and be recognised as someone special is important too.
Level 5: peak achievement is the need to achieve something really stunning or signiﬁcant.

Achieving this ﬁnal stage often makes people risk all that has gone before. For example, think of individuals who are prepared to risk their lives to achieve speciﬁc results (for example, round-the-world solo yachting, or climbing precipitous mountains). It is obvious that these individuals, while striving to achieve the highest level of human achievement, do so to the prejudice of the lower levels of the hierarchy of needs (notably safety and security).

Hidden motivators
Hidden motivators are also playing a role for people. Try to find them in your staff, so you can try to give them. If the motivator disappears, people will disappear.

ego, status, pride: these people like the ‘signals’ of success which show what they have achieved or how they see themselves, for example a company car.
fear, safety and security: These people work because it improves their feeling of security or safety. They like ﬁrm employment contracts with established employers. They like jobs which are low-risk and secure, and so they feel threatened when changes are proposed. Provide training to get them ready to cope with problems. They need a group of similar people and need feedback sessions. Don’t ask them more are you get them demotivated.
social, leisure, pleasure: These people enjoy life and work to acquire things which improve their social life or to reduce the time spent on boring tasks. They enjoy the social aspect of being at work, and being involved with other people. Provide a lot of informal contacts, coffee breaks, teambuilding, drinks after work. You have to put a lot of time in those people so they feel good.
money, value, profit: These people focus on the ﬁnancial aspect of any transaction. Money is an important motivator to them. They want to earn money, expertise, CV. They want to achieve something for themselves.
Peak personal achievement: they always want something exceptionel. If you can’t offer it anymore they will change jobs. They want to work day and night, want to do anything. They need the power to do their own thing. They need challenges.

It’s important to get a mix in an organization and to stimulate people to discover their inner motivators. It can explain why certain people match better with one collegue and not another and it helps having the right people in the right job.

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