It is almost a matter of faith that motivated employees lead to better business outcomes. Is it always the case? Are all enterprises equally effective in capitalizing on the employee motivation for business benefits? What are the intermediate variables that translate employee motivation levels to increased business benefits, and what if any, are the influencing variables that explain the variances?
Here is my take. All employees need to work enough to deliver on minimum commitment required to avoid any managerial pointing out. Any effort over and above this required effort is discretionary effort. Motivated employees are often associated with discretionary effort, as going the extra mile, beyond strict call of duty. For sake of simplicity, it is safe to assume that the more motivated an employee is, more discretionary effort (s)he is ready to spend. Another characteristic of the discretionary effort is the primacy of enterprise well being as the key driver instead of self gain (say in the form of more bonus and accelerated career growth).
The sum total of discretionary effort of all employees forms the discretionary effort account (DEA) available with the enterprise. Business outcomes depend upon the level of DEA available and enterprise ability to make its effective usage.
Here are the key hypotheses:
1. DEA is probably the best assurance for the sustained above normal performance and risk managing ability of an enterprise
2. DEA reveals itself in day-2-day employees behaviors such as active volunteering on enterprise initiatives, continuous flow of suggestions, employees standing for each other when required without seeking managerial interventions, employee learning new skills in their extended time (after office hrs/week ends), and amazing sense of resourcefulness shown by employees while solving problems or managing challenging situations.
3. Absence of DEA shows in terms of need to monetize every additional commitment, frequent reference to rules and entitlements in all manager-employee conversations and continuous demand for better clarity around roles and responsibilities among staff.
4. DEA gets generated by right employee policies and empowering culture.
5. Leveraging DEA effectively depends upon managing the right influencing variables.
6. IF the dominant management style of governance is “telling” type, ie detailing out in prescriptive manner what employees are expected to “DO”, key influencing variables are right supervisor behavior and perceived sense of fair play. In such a situation DEA helps manage variations in work load, and contingencies, as employees are willing to spend discretionary effort to help enterprise overcome the hump. It also comes handy when changing the procedures or adopting technology (ERP implementation), which often requires employees to spend time learning and practicing new ways of performing tasks.
7. IF the enterprise is more “outcome focused” with some level of autonomy given to employees on "how", DEA helps capture new opportunities and develop creative, breakthrough solutions. Sales force surely spends required effort to meet their targets, but DEA will include sales staff actively cross-selling and looking beyond their own sales target to uncover client additional needs and develop innovative ways by which enterprise can help meet them.
8. Influencing variables for DEA in “outcome-focused” enterprises include leaders sharing the bigger picture and goals, reinforcing guiding values (and what is not acceptable as means to an end!) and providing safe environment to experiment. Over enthusiastic employees in absence of shared value system and lack of purpose can create severe damage to enterprise reputation and make it vulnerable to unavoidable risks.
9. In essence, employee motivation as source of sustained advantage, needs well designed and coordinated interventions that help develop DEA and ensure its effective usage. Leaders, functional supervisors, HR staff have a definitive role to play. In the absence of integrated design and coordinated efforts by all stakeholders, either DEA may not get generated or may get frittered away without much business benefits.
10. There is need to trace path from employee motivation to business benefits, going beyond hope or faith. The above hypotheses is an attempt to provoke comments, suggestions and feedback to collectively define this path better.
Looking forward to your inputs, as always………..
Here is my take. All employees need to work enough to deliver on minimum commitment required to avoid any managerial pointing out. Any effort over and above this required effort is discretionary effort. Motivated employees are often associated with discretionary effort, as going the extra mile, beyond strict call of duty. For sake of simplicity, it is safe to assume that the more motivated an employee is, more discretionary effort (s)he is ready to spend. Another characteristic of the discretionary effort is the primacy of enterprise well being as the key driver instead of self gain (say in the form of more bonus and accelerated career growth).
The sum total of discretionary effort of all employees forms the discretionary effort account (DEA) available with the enterprise. Business outcomes depend upon the level of DEA available and enterprise ability to make its effective usage.
1. DEA is probably the best assurance for the sustained above normal performance and risk managing ability of an enterprise
2. DEA reveals itself in day-2-day employees behaviors such as active volunteering on enterprise initiatives, continuous flow of suggestions, employees standing for each other when required without seeking managerial interventions, employee learning new skills in their extended time (after office hrs/week ends), and amazing sense of resourcefulness shown by employees while solving problems or managing challenging situations.
3. Absence of DEA shows in terms of need to monetize every additional commitment, frequent reference to rules and entitlements in all manager-employee conversations and continuous demand for better clarity around roles and responsibilities among staff.
4. DEA gets generated by right employee policies and empowering culture.
5. Leveraging DEA effectively depends upon managing the right influencing variables.
6. IF the dominant management style of governance is “telling” type, ie detailing out in prescriptive manner what employees are expected to “DO”, key influencing variables are right supervisor behavior and perceived sense of fair play. In such a situation DEA helps manage variations in work load, and contingencies, as employees are willing to spend discretionary effort to help enterprise overcome the hump. It also comes handy when changing the procedures or adopting technology (ERP implementation), which often requires employees to spend time learning and practicing new ways of performing tasks.
7. IF the enterprise is more “outcome focused” with some level of autonomy given to employees on "how", DEA helps capture new opportunities and develop creative, breakthrough solutions. Sales force surely spends required effort to meet their targets, but DEA will include sales staff actively cross-selling and looking beyond their own sales target to uncover client additional needs and develop innovative ways by which enterprise can help meet them.
8. Influencing variables for DEA in “outcome-focused” enterprises include leaders sharing the bigger picture and goals, reinforcing guiding values (and what is not acceptable as means to an end!) and providing safe environment to experiment. Over enthusiastic employees in absence of shared value system and lack of purpose can create severe damage to enterprise reputation and make it vulnerable to unavoidable risks.
9. In essence, employee motivation as source of sustained advantage, needs well designed and coordinated interventions that help develop DEA and ensure its effective usage. Leaders, functional supervisors, HR staff have a definitive role to play. In the absence of integrated design and coordinated efforts by all stakeholders, either DEA may not get generated or may get frittered away without much business benefits.
10. There is need to trace path from employee motivation to business benefits, going beyond hope or faith. The above hypotheses is an attempt to provoke comments, suggestions and feedback to collectively define this path better.
Looking forward to your inputs, as always………..
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