Successful Management Through Effective Motivation

Successful Management Through Effective Motivation

One of the most challenging tasks that many people face in their lives is identifying what motivates others to be more productive in the workplace. Because organizations are the basic framework in which most worthwhile endeavors are accomplished, developing successful management skills that help to motivate employees is a fundamental need for virtually all managers today. To determine what factors are important to successful management through effective motivation in general and in a pharmacy setting in particular, this paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature, followed by a summary of the research and salient findings in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Certainly, all organizations are unique and there is no "one-size-fits-all" management approach that can be applied wholesale to all settings, but researchers have identified some commonalities among successful organizational managers that have been shown to be effective in motivating employees (Byham, 2002). Some of these attributes include personal characteristics that others admire while some factors involve the corporate culture that is created by such leaders. According to Maddock and Fulton (1998) "Leadership is motivation. A leader is a motivator. It is just that simple. It explains why the whole concept of leadership is so evasive and elusive. As it turns out, we have been measuring the wrong thing. Leadership is motivation" (p. 5). In this regard, a recent survey of federal employees analyzed by Zauderer (2005) found that many leaders who were successful motivators maintained high standards of honesty and integrity and were held in high regard by their subordinates. Truly effective leaders, Zauderer emphasizes, "generate high levels of motivation and commitment" (p. 44). As Isaac, Zerbe and Pitt (2001) point out, organizational managers and leaders use different approaches to motivation:

Managers use legitimate power to push employees towards desired ends, whereas leaders use their influence to pull followers towards goals. By establishing a relationship of mutual interest, the leader draws the follower along a pathway that satisfies the goals of both parties" (p. 212). Good communication, then, represents a starting point for effective motivation but there is more involved than simply establishing mutually acceptable goals. According to Isaac and his colleagues, the following factors have been shown to promote motivation in various organizational settings:

Leaders must recognize that followers differ significantly regarding their levels of self-esteem and self-confidence when attacking a task. Each individual assesses the probabilities associated with different courses of action in relation to outcomes that ratify perceptions of the self-concept. People choose tasks that promise to provide feedback congruent with their self-image. If they have low esteem, they probably lack the confidence to choose stretching goals. Leaders must recognize this and help followers in their developmental efforts.

Equally important is the expression of appreciation when various successes are encountered along the pathway towards the goal; the retention of employees partially depends upon recognition given by supervisors for follower achievements and efforts.

The leader should be there to provide encouragement when there are setbacks and to ensure forgiveness whenever honest mistakes occur in the follower's earnest attempts to accomplish results.

The leader must ensure that both parties clearly determine exactly what outcomes constitute acceptable performance and those results which do not.

The leader must understand that for many followers, the expenditure of effort on the part of the follower leads to satisfaction on the job (Isaac et al.).

While the debate over nature vs. nurture continues as it applies to leadership, it is clear that although not everyone can be a charismatic leader that possesses the natural attributes to engender this level of motivation and commitment among their subordinates, it is possible to develop those management skills that can help motivate others to superior performance in a sustainable fashion. According to Rogoff, Lee and Suh (2004), "Discovering which factors or practices lead to business success and which lead to failure is a primary, and as yet unfulfilled, purpose of business research" (p. 364). To help address this deficiency, these researchers conducted a mail survey of 189 pharmacy owners in the state of New Jersey to identify those characteristics that these individuals deemed most important to contributing to the success of their operations. The survey determined that an overwhelming majority (91%) of the pharmacy owners considered hard work ethics, dedication, knowledge and a commitment to professional service as being key to their success (Rogoff et al.). Other factors cited by these authors as being important to pharmacy managers were human resource issues such as the ability to hire qualified and hard-working people that were honest and possessed the appropriate level of professional knowledge (Rogoff et al.).