Terms of reference This report looks at motivational theory surrounding the quote “practice at most organisations centres on money as the primary motivating force”. It looks at other options in terms of types of motivation that can be applied in the hospitality industry. Introduction There are many different types of management style and much debate on which type is the most effective in getting the highest output from the work force. Most managers think they understand how to motivate their work force, when on the whole they have never looked into other approaches so they may not be getting the most out of the employees that they have.
In this report the information that is used has come from secondary data from many years ago, however they are still relevant and are still applied today. Findings Money is often the reason why people go to work the study that would agree with this is that of FW Taylor (1856-1917) on scientific management. Taylor believed that people only worked for one reason and that was money, therefore the more money they could get the more motivated they would be to work.
He referred to this as the carrot and stick approach, as the carrot would be the reward hanging in front of them they would work hard to get it, even though reaching the carrot would not be possible. Taylor saw his duty as a manager to maximise the efficiently that the employees would work at, therefore generating bigger profits for the company allowing the employees to be paid more. The way that Taylor did this was to break down a larger task into several small tasks that could be done very quickly and repeatedly.
Then he would design machinery that would perform these small tasks faster. This would then be put into a production line so that the product will be made as fast a possible by been moved down the production line after each small task has been performed. To ensure that the employees did not become demotivated, by doing the small repetitive tasks, therefore work slower Taylor came up with a new rate of pay called differential piece-rate. This is where the worker would be paid per unit that they have completed, often the rate would increase after a certain amount of units, or example 3p per unit up to 300 units then 5p per unit after 300 units each day. Taylor believed that this would increase the output because each employee would want to make as much money per day as possible, therefore it would be in the best interest of the employees to work in these conditions. To relate this to the hospitality industry would be difficult as you can’t really have a production line, but you can have certain people with certain tasks everyday that they will need to perform, as often is the way in hospitality.
The piece rate pay could not be applied to hospitality as usually staff are paid per hour of work, however this could still cause a motivation to work more hours because the employee knows that for each hour they work they will receive higher pay, to what extent this may compromise the quality of work, which would in this case be reflected through customer service, which would only have bad implications for the hospitality organisation. Taylor’s theory has since been heavily criticised as it was resented extremely by the workers themselves, therefore it usually had to be abandoned very soon after it was introduced.
The main problem seemed to be he would put efficiency before ethics thus forth treating the employee as part of the machine rather than an individual. This would create problems as he would have taken skilled mechanics and put them in a job with no skills, just like Henry ford did using Taylor’s model, this would lead to the de-skilling of employees. This shows that using money as the only technique for motivation doesn’t work if the working conditions are of a poor standard.
This could occur in a hotel as well if employees always did the same tasks such as always serving in the restaurant, they would lose the ability to be able to move around and work in the bar for example. In contrast other theorists believe that money shouldn’t be the primary motivating factor if a organisation, for example Elton Mayo and his human relations approach. This was all still closely liked to Taylor’s scientific approach as it was still focusing on profit and productivity, yet Elton Mayo considered how the employee could impact upon the efficiency as opposed to been just another cog in a well oiled manufacturing machine.
Mayo’s research, the Hawthorne experiments, came up with the conclusions that ” workers are affected by a degree of interest shown in them by their managers”, this is know as the Hawthorne effect. It comparison to Taylor’s theory it agrees with the need for a hierarchy, however Elton Mayo believes that the communication needs to be of a good standard between each layer of the hierarchy. This reason been that if employees are shown an interest in their productivity increases.
In conclusion this would argue that money is not the most motivating factor for staff, for example in the hospitality industry lower down the hierarchy people are often paid hourly, yet expected to work a lot of hours which would be reflected in their pay at the end of the working month. However employees will usually want to work their way up the hierarchy to management positions, so the opportunity of a promotion would be a bigger motivating factor than money in this case, therefore if the someone in a management position is showing an interest in you the employee is more likely to work harder to try and achieve the promotion.
In agreement with Mayo would be the theory of Maslow and the hierarchy of needs, in Maslow’s research it would suggest that money is needed to motivate, but it would only create low level motivation, allowing the employee to obtain the physical needs, such food and water, and also the safety needs, such as a house to provide security. To what extent money would not impact upon the top three factors in the hierarchy of needs. This in comparison to Elton Mayo’s theory agrees with the fact that social needs and self actualisation are more motivational.
This would agree with the previous point that a promotion would be more motivational than a pay rise, especially in the case of the hospitality industry, because it would increase the employees esteem needs and help them towards self actualisation. This is important in the hospitality industry because very often hotel or restaurant mangers are facing labor shortages so keeping staff motivated can be very difficult when they are been asked to do a lot of shifts, and on these shifts having to do a lot of work due to less staff been available.
Conclusion To conclude money can be a great motivating factor especially in hospitality where lower down employees are paid hourly, however it should not be the only factor as many employees have ambitions to progress in their career. Douglas Mcgregor’s theory of the x and y worker is a good example showing that some workers, theory X, are solely at work for the money as opposed to theory Y workers who will need more motivational techniques to be applied.
Therefore the overall conclusion been that there is no doubt that money does motivate but it should not be the only motivating factor especially in hospitality where employees aim to work their way up the hierarchy, Therefore it must be in a hospitality organisations best interest to apply a career development program to see higher motivation of staff. References A-Z Business Studies handbook, by David lines Business studies, by Ian Marcousé (Page 218-224) Human Resources Management for Hospitality, By Mary L.
Tanke (page 207) Karl knapp- http://karlknapp. com/resources/management/taylor. ppt Manasclerk- http://www. manasclerk. com/blog/2008/05/23/the-bros-heath-explain-incentive-pay-structures/ Tutor2u- http://www. tutor2u. net/business/people/motivation_theory_mcgregor. asp Terms of reference This report looks at motivational theory surrounding the quote “practice at most organisations centres on money as the primary motivating force”. It looks at other options in terms of types of motivation that can be applied in the hospitality industry.
Introduction There are many different types of management style and much debate on which type is the most effective in getting the highest output from the work force. Most managers think they understand how to motivate their work force, when on the whole they have never looked into other approaches so they may not be getting the most out of the employees that they have. In this report the information that is used has come from secondary data from many years ago, however they are still relevant and are still applied today.
Findings Money is often the reason why people go to work the study that would agree with this is that of FW Taylor (1856-1917) on scientific management. Taylor believed that people only worked for one reason and that was money, therefore the more money they could get the more motivated they would be to work. He referred to this as the carrot and stick approach, as the carrot would be the reward hanging in front of them they would work hard to get it, even though reaching the carrot would not be possible.
Taylor saw his duty as a manager to maximise the efficiently that the employees would work at, therefore generating bigger profits for the company allowing the employees to be paid more. The way that Taylor did this was to break down a larger task into several small tasks that could be done very quickly and repeatedly. Then he would design machinery that would perform these small tasks faster. This would then be put into a production line so that the product will be made as fast a possible by been moved down the production line after each small task has been performed.
To ensure that the employees did not become demotivated, by doing the small repetitive tasks, therefore work slower Taylor came up with a new rate of pay called differential piece-rate. This is where the worker would be paid per unit that they have completed, often the rate would increase after a certain amount of units, for example 3p per unit up to 300 units then 5p per unit after 300 units each day.
Taylor believed that this would increase the output because each employee would want to make as much money per day as possible, therefore it would be in the best interest of the employees to work in these conditions. To relate this to the hospitality industry would be difficult as you can’t really have a production line, but you can have certain people with certain tasks everyday that they will need to perform, as often is the way in hospitality.
The piece rate pay could not be applied to hospitality as usually staff are paid per hour of work, however this could still cause a motivation to work more hours because the employee knows that for each hour they work they will receive higher pay, to what extent this may compromise the quality of work, which would in this case be reflected through customer service, which would only have bad implications for the hospitality organisation. Taylor’s theory has since been heavily criticised as it was resented xtremely by the workers themselves, therefore it usually had to be abandoned very soon after it was introduced. The main problem seemed to be he would put efficiency before ethics thus forth treating the employee as part of the machine rather than an individual. This would create problems as he would have taken skilled mechanics and put them in a job with no skills, just like Henry ford did using Taylor’s model, this would lead to the de-skilling of employees. This shows that using money as the only technique for motivation doesn’t work if the working conditions are of a poor standard.
This could occur in a hotel as well if employees always did the same tasks such as always serving in the restaurant, they would lose the ability to be able to move around and work in the bar for example. In contrast other theorists believe that money shouldn’t be the primary motivating factor if a organisation, for example Elton Mayo and his human relations approach. This was all still closely liked to Taylor’s scientific approach as it was still focusing on profit and productivity, yet Elton Mayo considered how the employee could impact upon the efficiency as opposed to been just another cog in a well oiled manufacturing machine.
Mayo’s research, the Hawthorne experiments, came up with the conclusions that ” workers are affected by a degree of interest shown in them by their managers”, this is know as the Hawthorne effect. It comparison to Taylor’s theory it agrees with the need for a hierarchy, however Elton Mayo believes that the communication needs to be of a good standard between each layer of the hierarchy. This reason been that if employees are shown an interest in their productivity increases.
In conclusion this would argue that money is not the most motivating factor for staff, for example in the hospitality industry lower down the hierarchy people are often paid hourly, yet expected to work a lot of hours which would be reflected in their pay at the end of the working month. However employees will usually want to work their way up the hierarchy to management positions, so the opportunity of a promotion would be a bigger motivating factor than money in this case, therefore if the someone in a management position is showing an interest in you the employee is more likely to work harder to try and achieve the promotion.
In agreement with Mayo would be the theory of Maslow and the hierarchy of needs, in Maslow’s research it would suggest that money is needed to motivate, but it would only create low level motivation, allowing the employee to obtain the physical needs, such food and water, and also the safety needs, such as a house to provide security. To what extent money would not impact upon the top three factors in the hierarchy of needs.
This in comparison to Elton Mayo’s theory agrees with the fact that social needs and self actualisation are more motivational. This would agree with the previous point that a promotion would be more motivational than a pay rise, especially in the case of the hospitality industry, because it would increase the employees esteem needs and help them towards self actualisation.
This is important in the hospitality industry because very often hotel or restaurant mangers are facing labor shortages so keeping staff motivated can be very difficult when they are been asked to do a lot of shifts, and on these shifts having to do a lot of work due to less staff been available. Conclusion To conclude money can be a great motivating factor especially in hospitality where lower down employees are paid hourly, however it should not be the only factor as many employees have ambitions to progress in their career.
Douglas Mcgregor’s theory of the x and y worker is a good example showing that some workers, theory X, are solely at work for the money as opposed to theory Y workers who will need more motivational techniques to be applied. Therefore the overall conclusion been that there is no doubt that money does motivate but it should not be the only motivating factor especially in hospitality where employees aim to work their way up the hierarchy, Therefore it must be in a hospitality organisations best interest to apply a career development program to see higher motivation of staff.
