MOTIVATION

MOTIVATION: comes from the Latin word movere which means to move. Over the years, many theories have surged to try to explain what encourages people to move and much effort has been destined to the motivation of employees within organization given that motivation and performance are deeply related. International employee motivational theories can be divided in two groups:

  - CONTENT THEORIES: focus on specific elements that motivate the employees and that deal with their need and wants.

      The most influent theory is MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS which classifies people’s need in Physiological-Security and safety-Social -Self esteem-Self actualization. When an inferior rank need is satisfied the next level need becomes dominant and it becomes the most important motivational factor.

Source: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2011, from Abraham Maslow: http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp

      Alderferer developed de ERG THEORY, which in opposition to Maslow’s hierarchy stated that the classification wasn’t progressive and that all the needs had to be accomplished at the same time.

<!   FREDERICK HERZBERG’S TWO FACTORS THEORY: The theory considers that motivation and the increase of work performance can only be obtained through the action of the motivational factors, while the contextual factors only represent necessary conditions of the workplace. 

<!   THEORY X AND THEORY Y (DOUGLAS McGREGOR): Separates employees in two categories. Theory X: employees that must be forced and penalized in order to receive the expected performance. Theory Y: perceive effort at work at something natural and don’t have to be pushed because obtains motivation by the content of his work. 

Source: Las 8 teorías más importantes sobre la motivación . (2009, July 6). Retrieved February 24, 2011, from Pensamiento Imaginactivo: http://manuelgross.bligoo.com/content/view/554740/Las-8-teorias-mas-importantes-sobre-la-motivacion.html

   - PROCESS THEORIES: focus on the psychological forces that affect motivation. These are more useful to managers because they offer more realistic principles on motivation techniques.

<!   THE EXPECTANCY THEORY: motivation is only possible when there is a clear relation btw the work performance and its results, and between the results and an unsatisfied need.

<!   THE GOAL SETTING THEORY (LOTHAM and LOCKE): motivation and performance is higher when employees participate in goal setting and when there are specific objectives that even if difficult are accepted and receive feedback.

<!   THE EQUITY THEORY: refers to people’s perception on the way they are treated in comparison with others.

<!   THORY OF GROUP PERSONALITY AND GROUP NEEDS: ADAIR developed the idea that working groups resemble individuals in that even if they are unique, they also have common needs. He identified three areas of needs that interact and influence one another: Task, team and individual.

<!   Adair also developed THE FIFTY –FIFTY RULE which implies that an important part of motivation lays within a person, but that there is also a substantial that they can’t control.

     Ed Muzio, president and CEO of Group Harmonics explains six drivers of motivation within organizations and makes emphasis on the importance of motivation in improving communication and trust between employees. The reason I include this in my blog is that in my opinion motivation is everything but a well-defined managerial area given that it allows as much diversity as there can be. Even of Ed Muzio is not a recognized theorist, the six factors he mentions (trust, results, power, assistance, form, structure) gives a clear vision of how motivation may work.

Source: Six Hidden Factors of Motivation. (2010, August 8). Retrieved March 2, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ_VuA_noYk

 DISCUSSION: What is the role of culture in all this motivation theories?

As it was said before, throughout the years many theories have surged to try to explain how employees found themselves motivated and have a better performance within organizations, but globalization is posing bigger challenges to managers around the world in the task of motivating employees given that most of the well known theories fail to adapt themselves to a multicultural environment in today’s international business scenario. This assumption takes into account that no motivation strategy works for all individuals, not even those belonging to the same culture. In this way, managers are finding harder to motivate groups of employees from different backgrounds, this meaning that they belong to different cultures, have a different history, and come from different economic and political systems in their home country. In this context, cross-cultural management appears as an alternative to adapt traditional theories to nowadays cross-cultural business scenario.

When I think about motivation Nelson Mandela and Clint Eastwood’s film Invictus jump into my head. For those who haven’t seen it, it is about a South African man who spent many years in jail and afterwards became president of his racially and economically divided country, called his people to unity and succeeded. Watch the official trailer to see how he fulfilled this epic task. 

Source: Invictus Official Trailer HD. (2010, July 7). Retrieved March 2, 2011, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gfROs1ZtsA

NATIONAL & ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

It is important to make a distinction between cultural identity and national identity. Cultural identity refers to the relationship between a given geographical area and the cultural expressions associated with it; it provides bases for differentiation. On the other hand national identity is composed by cultural components that are intentionally established and maintained by state institutions.

National culture involves the systems of values that characterize a culture and that allows to distinguish members different groups. Corporate culture can be seen as the national culture within organizations given that it refers to the systems of values and rules that people that work in a given organization adopt while working there. The elements that constitute corporate culture shape employee’s behavior to what is expected in the organization.  Corporate culture establishes a guide for expected behavior within the organization and in difficult situations; it provides employees with a sense of identity and establishes a set of organizational values that often begin with the founder of the company. This knowledge about an organization is passed down through generations of hires.

Corporate culture takes different aspects (symbols, slogan, and ceremonies) and includes corporate symbols that can be visible or tangible and felt experiences. To analyze the corporate culture of an organization one has to pay attention to elements such as organizational structure, communication, rewards and promotion, dress code and relationships.

The following image summarizes the main characteristics of organizational culture:

Source: Organizational Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2011, from New Horizons: http://www.nhorizons.ca/en-change-culture-change.asp

DISCUSSION: How can national culture influence corporate culture?

Corporate culture can definitely be influenced by national culture because the later is a much broader concept that the first one and therefore corporate culture is implied in the national culture. In this order of ideas, as national culture represents the values that characterize a given society and their members, the companies that work in an environment where a given national culture prevails will be part of that group and share the same general set of values.

Even if a multinational company establishes in a host country, they will have to hire local employees and this will impregnate the organizational culture with the values of the local community. National culture can be perceived then as one of those elements that pull companies towards localization instead of globalization, because no matter where they go adapting to the local culture and its national values can make the difference between failure and success. As national culture implies all the aspects that differentiate a group of people from another, it is nearly impossible for an organization to work outside of those boundaries. 

…SOME BLOGS I LIKE

As a beginner in the blogging world I adventured myself into the BOB’s website searching for an answer to my question: what is it with blogs that became so famous all of a sudden? After a few minutes of glaring at some pages I found the answer: DIVERSITY. DIVERSITY implies that there is a blog that suits the interests of every person and indeed I found a couple that called my attention.

<!   1. BEAUTIFUL PLACES: this blog is the perfect tourist guide for travelers in Europe. The guy that blogs presents various country destinations such as Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Monaco, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland, and for each of them he includes a series of places than one ought to visit when visiting one, some or all of these countries. Additionaly, each beautiful place includes pictures and a short description and/or history behind it, which gives tourists the perfect background information before adventuring in the European continent. Nonetheless, this blog is also available for those of us who are not planning to travel to Europe, but that simply enjoy getting to know a little bit more about the cities and cultural sites that makes the world itself a very beautiful place.

What I like the most about this blog are its pictures, which complemented by a short description can transport one’s mind to the places like the Medieval Castle De Haar in Utretch, Netherlands.

Link: http://www.seebeautifulplaces.com/

 

Source: De Haar Castle. (27 de August de 2010). Recuperado el 24 de February de 2011, de Beautiful Places: http://www.seebeautifulplaces.com/2010/08/de-haar-castle.html

<!   2. COLOURING A CORNER: the blogger’s name is Alison Bourke and she is a media professional based in London. For one year now she has been blogging about stories, projects and ideas that she encounters in the streets of London and that and that leave a mark somewhere or in someone. Art projects, people, street ideas, internet, photography, London culture, environment and community are topics that arise in this blog and that are kind of a social approach to everyday life in London. I found in this blog a social conscience and a profound appreciation towards society. Many times we do not realize that there are people who work in small projects and have ideas that might not change the world as it is, but that that send small messages that build on and on towards a better society. About this blog I especially like its name, which it’s sort of a metaphor to those small changing ideas or distinctive projects that take place every days and in every community. I can even use it to pose a question to you all: How have you colored a corner in your own community?

Link: http://colouringacorner.tumblr.com/

<!   3. NEO QUIZ SPOT: this blog belongs to an organization from India that uploads quizzes based on MBA preparing students with the intention of making learning easier. Personally, I found the quizzes so difficult that it was kind of frustrating and I don’t really see how that will make my learning process easier. However, as diversity rocks in the blogging world, there are quizzes on any topic you can possibly imagine so I’ll keep looking and hopefully I’ll find something that will make me feel smart again. Despite my negative experience with this blog I think it’s very interesting because of the previously mentioned diversity and because learning is a never stopping process. I wish you better luck than I had.

Link: http://neoquizspot.blogspot.com/search/label/School%20Quiz