This is the last video in module three. So, the third foundational block is almost in place. In the next module, we'll look at managers as part of a complex system of legal constraints and other pressures. But to finish this module first, I want to, again, think about the diverse reasons why people work. We spent two modules looking at different reasons why people work and the different rewards that work can provide. To finish off this module, I think it's useful to bring these reasons back together into one single video, and to highlight a few elements that tie each of them together. In particular, what does each concept of work imply about three different things? One, barriers to full work effort, two, implications for work motivation, and three, implications for engagement. These are three keys issues for any manager. So, take a look at the worker here, in this slide. It doesn't seem like he's able to give full work effort, at least not at this particular time. As a manager, it's your task to figure out why. My claim is that thinking about the different reasons why people work, the different meanings of work, gives you a diagnostic tool for trying to figure out why this worker isn't able to work up to his full potential, at least at this particular time. So, for example, If work is a curse to this person, that means that this person sees work as something that's painful and monotonous, and therefore probably isn't very excited by his work and isn't giving full effort. So what can you do, as a manager, to provide a motivational solution to this? Well unfortunately, when work is seen as a curse by workers, the only thing you can do is preach acceptance. Well, it's just the way it is, so you might as well grin and bear it and might as well work hard. Now, as a second example, suppose an individual sees work as a source of income. Then they assume that work is painful, they prefer leisure. So what is the solution to a lack of full effort? It's to provide financial incentives. If a worker sees work as a source of rights, then they might not be working very hard because their work lacks minimum standards and lacks voice. And so, to motivate this worker in a stronger fashion, you want to provide minimum standards and some kind of voice. If a worker believes that work is fulfillment, then perhaps, they aren't working hard because it's not fulfilling. Their work is stressful, boring, repetitive, not very rewarding intrinsically, and so how can you spur deeper effort? By structuring this work in a different way so this individual can gain greater fulfillment. Now if somebody sees work as status, a way to achieve a sense of belonging and acceptance and avoid social exclusion, then maybe that worker's not working very hard because it's not delivering on status and ability to achieve belonging and acceptance. And so a motivational solution would be to try to restructure the work, or restructure norms, other ways of trying to get this worker to be able to achieve the status, belonging, in acceptance that they might be looking for. Additionally, a worker might see his or her work as a source of identity and so they're not giving a lot of effort because their work causes conflicts with their inner, or desired sense of self. So they're required to give too much emotional labor, which requires them to mask their true emotions, or they are not allowed to be creative when they see themselves as a creative individual. So you can try to spur greater motivation and higher job performance by restructuring their work to create some positive sense of their selves. How about workers who see their work as a way to care for others? They might not be working very hard. There might be a barrier to strong work effort, because the work that they're experiencing devalues caring for others, they might see the work is being prioritized to the interest of men, or prioritized to commodity production rather than caring for individuals. So motivational solutions include trying to reduce discrimination, as well as trying to alleviate conflicts with other spheres of a worker's life. Lastly, if work is seen as serving others by someone, then maybe they aren't working very hard because the work that they're doing values commodity production over the ability to serve others. So a motivational solution, similar to the motivational solution for caring for others, is to restructure this work, create a sense of value and opportunities for this worker to serve other people. So again, a manager's task is to diagnose a lack of full work effort. And so there might be many reasons for this. They might not have the skills. There might be problems with coworkers. They might have unclear work tasks. There might be a variety of reasons, not all of them related to the reasons why this person is working. However, thinking about what work means to this individual can give you additional clues to why this person isn't working up to their full potential, and give you additional ideas for motivational strategies for redressing that important problem. Next let's think about driving engagement. Assuming that this person in this video, here, is actually engaged in her work, and not just playing a video, let's think about what the different reasons for working, what the different meanings of work imply about trying to enhance worker engagement. Now, if workers, or an organization, treats work as a curse, as a source of income, as a commodity, then it's very difficult to achieve highly engaged workplaces, highly engaged workers. And the organization or the workers need to reorient their views of work more towards seeing it as a source of fulfillment, identity, a way to serve others, and the like. What if workers and organizations see work in other ways? Well, if workers see work as a source of fulfillment, then you can try to drive engagement via intrinsic rewards. And in earlier videos, we've looked at what it takes to drive intrinsic rewards, like competence, autonomy, belonging, positive self-esteem. If workers see work as a source of status and belonging, and avoiding social exclusion, then you can try to drive engagement through interpersonal relationships, social networks, norms, and organizational culture. If workers see work as a source of identity, then engagement can be derived by helping people create positive views of the self, especially as they see themselves as a positive member of the organization and derived positive self meaning and a positive sense of the self by being an organizational member. And then lastly, if workers see work as caring or service, then you can try to create engagement by providing opportunities to deliver upon these goals. Provide opportunities for workers to care for others, to serve for others, either directly through their work, or indirectly through their work, maybe by released time volunteer programs, things of that nature. Okay. So just like pasta and grains, there's a huge variety of work. There is many jobs, there's very different types of workers, there's many meanings of work, so managers and HR professionals need to figure out this complicated landscape in their own work units. A human resources vice president that I interviewed earlier gave you some excellent advice in an earlier video. And it's worth 30 seconds of our time to replay it here. >> One piece of advice that I would give someone that's managing people for the first time is to make sure to take the time to focus on getting to know your people and specifically, getting to know what motivates them. Making sure that you get to know what, really, their strengths are and their development needs. And remember that one size doesn't fit all, that one size fits one, and so you may need to tailor, how you manage, how you direct, how you guide those on your team, depending on what motivates them and depending on what helps them to get focused on what they need to do. >> Okay, you may think I've completely lost my mind with this slide. What is this crazy representation? But I want to emphasize one more thing about the complexity of work. I've spent a lot of time saying that you need to figure out what motivates each of your employees, but this is more complicated than simply figuring out the single thing that motivates each worker. Work is so complex that each of us puts the pieces together in different ways. So it's not a matter of figuring out that I'm motivated by money, somebody else is motivated by caring and somebody else is motivated by fulfillment. Rather, it's that I can be motivated my money and fulfillment and identity and serving others etc. So you need to figure out what elements different workers are putting together in different ways. I know that this can be challenging, but understanding the different possibilities is an important foundation and an important starting point. Finally, I spent two modules talking about different views of work and different perspectives. But there should be one thing that's universal, one thing that doesn't differ from person to person, work unit to work unit, organization to organization, country to country. Yes, work is often hard, but it shouldn't be unreasonably dangerous. Work needs to be safe. Make sure your employees are using proper safety equipment, pay attention to safety standards, and take the health and safety of your workers very seriously.
