Whose responsibility is it to Motivate?

Whose responsibility is it to Motivate?

It is well understood in the academic literature that motivation is an internal force (McShane & Von Glinow, 2014).  Motivation is an internal drive, and many motivators are common among all people (McShane & Von Glinow, 2014).  Therefore, it is the leaders’ job to understand the underlining theories of motivation so that management may help unlock the innate motivations that are latent in every person.  It is unreasonable to hold managers accountable for “motivating” their employees.  We should hold responsible for understanding what motivators exist within our employees and ensuring those triggers are embedded within the design of the respective employees’ job functions and corporate culture.  This is a small verbal tweak, but when thinking about it, is it possible to motivate someone else if motivation is an internal drive?  As leaders, it is our responsibility to help create and foster the environments by which other people’s internal motivations are released and enhanced.

References

McShane, S. L., & Glinow, M. V. (2014). Organizational behavior (Third ed.)

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