Workplace Motivational Strategies
Jenn Christman
University of Phoenix

PSY/320

Mary Sue Farmer, MS, PHD

April 18, 2011

The changing needs of today’s employee, the rising costs of keeping employees at our school and the desire to increase teacher productivity in the school is driving the need for more creative strategies to motivate us. The Administration must strive to get the best possible results from our staff members using strategies that will develop a commitment to excellence and also to the success of the school. Many successful businesses use a selection of popular strategies. It is very common to see several different motivational strategies, which may be the result from separate strategies, working together at the same time. Effective motivational strategies have a tremendous impact on productivity in the school environment. An engaged and motivated teacher workforce can mean the difference between a successful school year and a failing school year.

I currently work for a school that motivates the employees to do their best and offers motivators that keep each of us striving to do our best. Each staff member is influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Some of us are naturally are more motivated by external factors like pay raise and rewards than others. I am motivated by the recognition that I receive when I help a student who is having difficulty succeed and a parent who recognizes this. It is essential to understand each person in my workplace is to determine to do their best to motivate each other to maintain productivity levels. A teacher who is highly self-motivated will benefit others most when upper management successfully conveys that the productivity goals that must be met are a benefit to everyone. Additionally, a highly motivated individual might be more easily encouraged to increase production when she has a say in the goals that must be met. Teachers are generally motivated by both internal and external factors. Internal factors include an individual teachers own personal thought processes and experiences. External factors are those that either inspire workers to be productive through the use of rewards or by instilling a sense of pride the staff members. It is essential to understand that staff member who is highly self-motivated can be greatly impacted by an external environment that encourages employees to display high levels of motivation.

Those teachers who are not naturally self-motivated require a higher degree of external motivation from the administrative director and this usually takes the form of rewards and recognition for following the lesson plans required to teach. However, I have observed that the teachers who are easily motivated by the satisfaction they receive from a job well done, sometimes actually experience a decline in motivation and productivity when external motivational strategies are overused and the verbal recognition wanted is not given. Our Director has the power to motivate and not motivate the teachers. Perhaps the most essential element of understanding motivational strategies that affect productivity in our school is for her to recognize that power and for the director to educate herself so she can use this power to the benefit of the school overall.

Incentive strategies in our school have varying degrees of success in increasing productivity and it depends on the individual teacher and the daily environment. Incentives can be successful at our school when employees must complete simple, not complicated tasks. For example, offering a Starbucks card to the teachers that make sure all their students library books are turned in on time and that there are no late fees. Or offering a day off during in service times to teachers that have completed their lesson plans early for the next trimester. This has been successful in the productivity of the school system and has also helped the teachers to be more responsible. The use of incentives benefits all employees whether they are externally motivated or internally motivated.

Our administrative director is new to her position but she must be an example and create a positive environment to encourage staff members to be productive. While she can enforce productivity levels simply by using the authority of her position, she must use the above mentioned positive motivators to encourage higher levels of productivity. As a teacher and office administrator, I am generally more productive when working in an atmosphere of respect where I feel that administration is keeping the lines of communication open and keeps the all the staff informed of long-term and short-term goals rather than simply trying to control and manage us in their day-to-day activities. The solution to successful management of productivity is to manage behaviors rather than individual personalities. In other words, if our director wants to increase productivity, she must recognize each person’s individual strengths and motivate them to use those strengths.

One effective strategy that my workplace does not use with all the staff members for increasing productivity is a performance management program. These programs use various strategies that are designed to motivate on an individual level. Performance management consists of strategies designed to develop a plan of success for the individual worker. In this process, everyone works together to create a plan to ensure the employee's success. Teachers who can see a clear path to meeting their individual career goals within the school are more motivated to increase productivity than those who see no future for themselves beyond what they already do.
The different motivational strategies that are used to improve productivity in the workplace do not work for everyone, each individual teacher is naturally motivated differently. Like many management strategies, not every approach works in every situation. It is important for our administration to consider the individual teacher involved in each position before determining the appropriate motivational strategy.

References

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