The lease is about to run out on a rental property of mine and I’d like to know if the tenants are planning to stay. So I phoned the agent I use to let the property last Thursday and asked them to chase it up. A week later and I’ve not heard back, so I phoned them again today to follow up.

Last week they told me they had written to the tenants a month ago and were waiting for a reply. It turns out they’ve not called the tenants yet. They then asked me if I still wanted to let it out, for how long and for what rent? Three questions I answered in writing when they wrote to me and asked several weeks ago.

While you could argue it’s poor customer service (and I’d agree) it seems to be endemic in today’s high street businesses. So perhaps the problem goes deeper that a lack of customer service, maybe there’s a problem with motivation? I think so, but what can you as the owner/manager do about it, how can you motivate your staff?

If we turn to management theory for the answers we find several different approaches.

Scientific Management

Scientific management is based on the premise that workers are primarily motivated by money. Fredrick Winslow Taylor (the father of scientific management) would therefore suggest we pay the workers more.

Human Relations

The human relations approach suggests that social relations can be a powerful motivating force. As such emphasis should be placed on the relationships between the workers and between the workers and their management.

Content Theories

Theory X / Theory Y

McGregor described traditional management practices as Theory X saying the practices neither explained nor described human nature, being based on the assumptions that:

• people dislike work and will avoid it if possible,
• people must be coerced, controlled, directed and threatened to get them to put in an adequate level of effort,
• people prefer to be directed and avoid responsibility.

He put forward and alternate theory, Theory Y stating that:

• people have no inherent dislike of work, but they might dislike established practice,
• people will exercise self-direction and self-control in pursuit of goals to which they are comitted,
• their level of commitment will depend on the level of rewards seen to be recieved,
• in the right circumstances an individual will accept and seek responsibility,
• a high proportion of the population is capable of creativity in solving problems,
• Industrialisation has under-employed such capabilities.

He believed that management should arrange the organisation such that it allows people to best achieve their goals, this would motivate employees.

Hertzberg

Hertzberg suggested that there are two distinct categories into which motivational factors can fall:

• Satisfiers (motivators) – these are factors related to the job itself such as achievement, job satisfaction and the work itself.
• Dissatisfies (hygiene factors) – these are factors relating to the employee’s relationship with the organisation such as policy, salary, conditions and supervision.

Maslow

Maslow’s theory of human motivation was based on clinical observations and states that individuals are motivated by a desire to satisfy specific needs, which can be classified into five major groups:

1. Physiological – the basic needs of an individual such as food, water, shelter.
2. Safety and security -an ordered existence in a relatively stable, threat-free environment.
3. Love and belonging – the need for affection and belonging.
4. Esteem – the need for self-respect and self-esteem.
5. Self-actualisation -the need for self-fulfilment.

He maintained that these needs must be satisfied in order from 1-5 and that lower level needs must be partly met before higher level needs become important.

Alderfer

Alderfer proposed the Existence, Relatedness, Growth (ERG) theory that updates Maslow’s hierarchy of needs proposing three levels:

1. Existence needs – the things you need in order to survive.
2. Relatedness needs – the need for love, belonging and esteem.
3. Growth needs – self-esteem and self-actualisation.

The ERG theory differs from Maslow’s theory in that Alderfer suggest that further rewards at a lower level can make up for a lack of higher level rewards. In other words more pay can make up for a dull job.

McClelland

McClelland argued that people have acquired needs. He suggests that people acquire or learn needs based on life experiences.

Cognitive/Process Theories

These theories are more sophisticated and give the individual a more active roles rather than just responding to their environment. Cognitive theories suggest that people are able to make their own decisions based on cues from their environment.

Vroom and expectancy theory

Vroom suggested that a person’s motivation is the product of two factors:

1. Valance – the strength of a person’s preference for a certain outcome. This would be a costive value if they would prefer to achieve the outcome, a negative if they would prefer not to achieve the outcome and zero if they are indifferent.
2. Subjective probability – the person’s expectation that the outcome will result from a certain behaviour. This depends on the person’s perception of the relationship between behaviour and outcome.

The theory can then be expressed as a mathematical formula: F = V x E where V is the Valance and E the expectation (subjective probability).

Equity theory

Equity theory suggests that a persons degree of motivation can be affected by comparisons we make between the forces the person puts into the job and the rewards they get from it. The theory suggests that people prefer situations that balance, i.e. equity, which occurs when the percieved ratio of effort to result is equal. Where they are not equal dissatisfaction results.

Goal theory

Goal theory suggests that people work harder when they have a specific target or goal to aim for. This forms the basis of Management By Objectives.

Final Thoughts

Personally I believe that each workplace is different and you will need to find the right theory for your business. You might even need to use more than one, tailoring your style of management to the types of people you are managing.

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