考满分网

THE CHALLENGE

挑战

It is a great deal easier to motivate employees in a growing organisation than a declining one. When organisations are expanding and adding personnel, promotional opportunities, pay rises, and the excitement of being associated with a dynamic organisation create feelings of optimism. Management is able to use the growth to entice and encourage employees. When an organisation is shrinking, the best and most mobile workers are prone to leave voluntarily. Unfortunately, they are the ones the organisation can least afford to lose - those with the highest skills and experience. The minor employees remain because their job options are limited.

与一家日显衰退的公司相比，一家具有发展潜能的公司更容易激发员工的积极性。当企业正值扩大规模、增加员工之时，提供升职机会、提高薪水以及身处充满发展活力的企业所带来的兴奋感，都会创造一种乐观向上的情绪。管理层不仅能够利用这种优势吸引求职者，还可激励在职员工。相反，如果企业处于衰退期，那么最好的和最具流动性的员工则会自动辞职。不幸的是，他们恰是企业发展最不可或缺的人才，因为他们兼有高超的技术和丰富的经验。而技术和经验欠缺的员工留下来，是因为他们的工作选择机会有限。

Morale also suffers during decline. People fear they may be the next to be made redundant. Productivity often suffers, as employees spend their time sharing rumours and providing one another with moral support rather than focusing on their jobs. For those whose jobs are secure, pay increases are rarely possible. Pay cuts, unheard of during times of growth, may even be imposed. The challenge to management is how to motivate employees under such retrenchment conditions. The ways of meeting this challenge can be broadly divided into six Key Points, which are outlined below.

在企业衰退期，员工士气同样低落。人们害怕成为下一个被裁的人。由于不认真工作，而是花费时间散布谣言，互相鼓舞士气，如此一来，导致生产率下降。对于那些工作稳定的人来说，想提高薪水似乎不太可能，甚至减薪都有可能，而这在企业成长期是闻所未闻的。管理者面对的挑战就在于如何在企业衰退的境况下鼓励员工。应对此种挑战的方法大致可分为六大要点，列述如下。

KEY POINT ONE

要点1

There is an abundance of evidence to support the motivational benefits that result from carefully matching people to jobs. For example, if the job is running a small business or an autonomous unit within a larger business, high achievers should be sought. However, if the job to be filled is a managerial post in a large bureaucratic organisation, a candidate who has a high need for power and a low need for affiliation should be selected. Accordingly, high achievers should not be put into jobs that are inconsistent with their needs. High achievers will do best when the job provides moderately challenging goals and where there is independence and feedback. However, it should be remembered that not everybody is motivated by jobs that are high in independence, variety and responsibility.

大量证据显示，将员工和工种进行合理匹配能够激发动力。比如，经营一家小公司或一家稍大规模的公司的独立部门需要高效率的员工。不过，若空缺是大型政府机关的管理者，则需选择权力欲强而依赖性弱的候选人。因此，高效率的雇员应该从事符合自己的需要的工作。当他们在工作中面临适度挑战，有自主性和能得到反馈意见时，高效者的工作将极为出色。可是，要切记的是，不是每个人都会被自主性强、灵活性大和需要责任感的工作所鼓舞。

KEY POINT TWO

要点2

The literature on goal-setting theory suggests that managers should ensure that all employees have specific goals and receive comments on how well they are doing in those goals. For those with high achievement needs, typically a minority in any organisation, the existence of external goals is less important because high achievers are already internally motivated. The next factor to be determined is whether the goals should be assigned by a manager or collectively set in conjunction with the employees. The answer to that depends on perceptions of goal acceptance and the organisation's culture. If resistance to goals is expected, the use of participation in goal-setting should increase acceptance. If participation is inconsistent with the culture, however, goals should be assigned. If participation and the culture are incongruous, employees are likely to perceive the participation process as manipulative and be negatively affected by it.

目标理论的资料显示，管理者应该确保每个员工有具体的工作目标。还要确保他们能获取关于他们完成任务的情况的意见。对于企业中那些极少数怀有大志的人，外在的目标显得次要得多，因为他们内心早已明确自己想要的东西。另一个要确定的因素是，工作目标是由管理者制定还是由全体员工共同商议来制定。答案取决于对目标接受程度的感知和企业文化。如果预期会出现抵制目标的情况，员工参与目标的设定会增加目标的接受程度。如果这种参与同企业文化不相协调，那么就要指定工作目标；如果参与本身同企业文化相矛盾，员工会认为参与过程是公司私下操纵的，就可能受到不良影响。

KEY POINT THREE

要点3

Regardless of whether goals are achievable or well within management's perceptions of the employee's ability, if employees see them as unachievable they will reduce their effort. Managers must be sure, therefore, that employees feel confident that their efforts can lead to performance goals. For managers, this means that employees must have the capability of doing the job and must regard the appraisal process as valid.

暂且不说工作目标是否具有可行性或是否在管理者对员工能力的认识范围之内，假如员工认为目标不可行，他们自然就会懈怠。因此，管理者必须确信一点，即员工满怀自信，认为其工作表现会达到预期效果。对于管理者来说，这就意昧着员工要有能力胜任工作，并且相信评估制度的有效性。

KEY POINT FOUR

要点4

Since employees have different needs, what acts as a reinforcement for one may not for another. Managers could use their knowledge of each employee to personalise the rewards over which they have control. Some of the more obvious rewards that managers allocate include pay, promotions, autonomy, job scope and depth, and the opportunity to participate in goal-setting and decision-making.

由于不同的员工有不同的需要，所以对某个人有促进的事情不一定适用于另一个人。这就要求管理者运用自己对员工的了解使得所付奖赏人性化。管理者分配的较明显的奖励包括加薪、职位晋升、赋予独立决策权、扩大工作广度和深度、给予机会参与目标设定和决策制定。

KEY POINT FIVE

要点5

Managers need to make rewards contingent on performance. To reward factors other than performance will only reinforce those other factors. Key rewards such as pay increases and promotions or advancements should be allocated for the attainment of the employee's specific goals. Consistent with maximising the impact of rewards, managers should look for ways to increase their visibility. Eliminating the secrecy surrounding pay by openly communicating everyone's remuneration, publicising performance bonuses and allocating annual salary increases in a lump sum rather than spreading them out over an entire year are examples of actions that will make rewards more visible and potentially more motivating.

管理者应当把奖励和表现联系起来。除了工作表现之外，奖励的因索还有其他。主要的奖励包括对完成工作目标的员工提高工资，予以晋升。为了最大限度地发挥奖赏带来的影响力，管理者应寻找途径扩大奖赏标准的透明度。公开个人酬劳进而减少其隐秘性、公布业绩分红，一次性地分配年度工资涨幅而非将其全年平均分配，这些做法会让奖赏更加清晰可见，对员工更具有潜在的鼓励作用。

KEY POINT SIX

要点6

The way rewards are distributed should be transparent so that employees perceive that rewards or outcomes are equitable and equal to the inputs given. On a simplistic level, experience, abilities, effort and other obvious inputs should explain differences in pay, responsibility and other obvious outcomes. The problem, however, is complicated by the existence of dozens of inputs and outcomes and by the fact that employee groups place different degrees of importance on them. For instance, a study comparing clerical and production workers identified nearly twenty inputs and outcomes. The clerical workers considered factors such as quality of work performed and job knowledge near the top of their list, but these were at the bottom of the production workers' list. Similarly, production workers thought that the most important inputs were intelligence and personal involvement with task accomplishment, two factors that were quite low in the importance ratings of the clerks. There were also important, though less dramatic, differences on the outcome side. For example, production workers rated advancement very highly, whereas clerical workers rated advancement in the lower third of their list. Such findings suggest that one person's equity is another's inequity, so an ideal should probably weigh different inputs and outcomes according to employee group.

奖励分配的方式应该透明，这样员工才能感受到他们的投入与所获奖赏或成果是相等的，是公平的。从简单层面上讲，每个人的经验、能力、努力程度同其他显而易见的付出的不同决定了他们的工资、责任感和其他显著成果的差异。然而，由于存在诸多投入和产出关系，加上不同的员工小组对各种关系的重视程度不同，奖励分配问题变得异常复杂。例如，一个比较办公室工作人员和生产工人的研究发现了近20个投入与产出因素，办公室工作人员会将诸如工作质量和工作经验等因素置于头等位置，而恰恰相反，这些在生产工人看来是最不值得一提的。同样，生产工人认为最重要的投入是智力和个人参与度，这两项是办公室工作人员认为不太重要的。关于产出方面，两者也有重要但却不明显的不同之处。比如，生产工人认为晋升相当重要，可办公室工作人员则将它排在倒数第三位。以上发现表明，对一个人公正的标准不代表对其他人也适用，所以，理想的状态也许应该是根据员工小组的不同权衡他们投入和产出的不同。