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.

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.

    在一个不断发展的组织中，激励员工要比在一个衰退中的组织中更容易。当组织扩张并增加人员时，晋升机会、加薪以及与充满活力的组织相关联的兴奋感会产生乐观情绪。管理层能够利用这种增长来吸引和鼓励员工。而当一个组织在萎缩时，最好的、最具灵活性的员工往往会自愿离开。不幸的是，他们恰恰是组织最不能承受失去的人员，他们具备最高的技能和经验。那些工作选择有限的较低级别员工会留下来。

士气在衰退期也会受到影响。人们担心自己可能是下一个被裁员的人。员工通常会花时间传播谣言，相互给予精神上的支持，而不是专注于工作，从而导致生产率下降。对于那些工作稳定的人来说，加薪几乎是不可能的。而在增长时期从未听说过降薪的情况，在衰退时期甚至可能实行。管理层面临的挑战是如何在这种紧缩状况下激励员工。应对这一挑战的方式可以大致分为以下六个要点，具体如下。

要点一

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.

要点一：

有大量的证据表明，将人与工作进行精心匹配可以带来激励效果。例如，如果工作是经营一个小型企业或者是一个较大企业内部的一个自主单位，应该寻找高绩效者。然而，如果要填补的职位是在一个大型官僚组织中的管理职位，应选择那些具有高权力需求和低从属需求的候选人。因此，高绩效者不应被安排在与他们需求不一致的工作岗位上。高绩效者在工作中有适度的挑战目标、独立性和反馈时能够表现最好。然而，值得记住的是，并不是每个人都受到独立性、多样性和责任感高的工作的激励。

要点二

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.

要点二：

目标设定理论的文献表明，管理者应确保所有员工都有具体的目标，并获得关于他们在这些目标上表现如何的反馈。对于那些有高成就需求的人而言，在任何组织中通常只占少数，外部目标的存在就不那么重要了，因为高绩效者已经具有内在动机。下一个要确定的因素是目标应由经理人分配还是与员工共同设定。答案取决于目标接受程度和组织文化的认知。如果预计会对目标产生抵抗，使用参与目标设定应增加接受度。然而，如果参与与组织文化不一致，目标应由经理人分配。如果参与和组织文化不相符，员工可能会认为参与过程是有意控制的，并对其产生负面影响。

要点三

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.

要点三：

无论目标是否可以实现，或者在管理层对员工能力的认知中，如果员工认为目标无法实现，他们会降低努力的程度。因此，管理者必须确保员工对于他们的努力能够实现绩效目标充满信心。对于管理者来说，这意味着员工必须具备完成工作的能力，并且必须认为评估过程是有效的。

要点四

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.

要点四：

由于员工具有不同的需求，对于一个人来说作为激励的因素可能对另一个人来说并不起作用。管理者可以利用对每个员工的了解，个性化地设计他们能够控制的奖励方式。一些比较明显的由管理者分配的奖励包括薪酬、晋升、自主权、工作范围和深度，以及参与目标设定和决策制定的机会。

要点五

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.

要点五：

管理者需要将奖励与绩效挂钩。对于非绩效因素的奖励只会加强这些其他因素的作用。应根据员工的具体目标来分配关键奖励，如薪酬增加、晋升或提升应根据员工的具体目标来确定。为了最大化奖励的影响，管理者应寻找增加可见性的方法。例如，通过公开沟通每个人的报酬、宣传绩效奖金，并将年薪增加以一次性发放而不是分散到整个年度，这些行动都会使奖励更加明显，潜在地也更具激励性。

要点六

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.

要点六：

奖励的分配方式应该是透明的，这样员工才会认为奖励或结果是公平的，并与所付出的投入相等。从简单的角度来看，经验、能力、努力和其他明显的投入应该解释薪酬、责任和其他明显的结果之间的差异。然而，这个问题变得复杂起来，因为存在着几十个输入和输出，并且由于员工群体对它们的重视程度不同。例如，一项比较文员和生产工人的研究发现了近20个输入和输出因素。文员认为工作质量和工作知识等因素在他们的优先级列表上靠前，但这些因素在生产工人的重要性评级中排名靠后。类似地，生产工人认为最重要的输入是智力和个人参与任务完成，而这两个因素在文员的重要性评级中都比较低。在结果方面也存在重要但不那么明显的差异。例如，生产工人对晋升的评价非常高，而文职工作人员对晋升的评价则处于他们的优先级列表的较低位置。这样的研究结果表明，一个人的公平在另一个人看来可能是不公平的，所以理想情况下应该根据员工群体的不同权衡不同的输入和结果。