Workplace Motivation - The Pitfalls

Workplace Motivation has become a necessity in today's corporate
world. Workplace motivation has gone amiss in a majority of present
day offices. A common workplace attitude that is spreading like an
epidemic among most organizations is employees just about working from
one day to another till the pay day arrives as there is no motivation.
At the same time, the only priority of team leaders is to think of
ways to retain power and control and maintain status quo. In such a
scenario, getting the job done is lowest on the priority list of both
team members and leaders who need to increase their efficiency through
motivation.In today's world of cut-throat competition, commercial
success depends largely on the talent pool at a company's disposal,
which in turn thrives on the basis of motivation. This makes it all
the more important to ensure that employees use their full potential.
This cannot be possible without proper motivation. Though there are a
myriad of available theories and practices related to motivation,
managers often find themselves at a loss when deciding upon the ideal
model of workplace motivation for their company. One of the major
reasons behind the difficulty in building motivation is that
individual employees are motivated by different things and in
different ways.Deciding on the best model of workplace motivation for
a company becomes all the more difficult if its employees are working
part time or on limited-term contracts. Motivation not only ensures
workplace efficiency but job security as well. Though there are no
real disadvantages to having a motivation model in place, there can be
some pitfalls of the same.One of the major pitfalls of motivation is
unaware or absent managers. Workplace motivation can also suffer due
to improper infrastructural support and outdated equipment. Entrenched
attitude of certain employees is yet another barrier that motivation
has to overcome. Some of the major hurdles in implementing workplace
motivation are employees' qualms about overtime, work being out of
their job description or a clueless manager.Another major pitfall of
workplace motivation is that it may cause insecurity among managers if
the organization indulges in de-layering and flattening of
hierarchies. Such a motivation model can also lead to lower staff
morale. As the work environments in most companies keep evolving,
motivation should keep pace with the same. Always remember that
workplace motivation is the foundation for higher employee
productivity and greater employee happiness.