Tackling the problem of no motivation at workplace

“Hey man, I am not feeling like taking class today. Ask the students to go to library and prepare notes on transpiration. Let them also prepare for their seminar tomorrow” Dr. Rajesh, Prof of botany said to Gaureesh who was a newly appointed lecturer. “ok sir” he replied and went to the class to give instructions to the students. For Gaureesh, it was not a new thing as he is an old student of Dr. Rajesh and for the professor, it is a routine to tell his students to prepare notes on one or the other topic, carelessly hearing (not listening) to their seminars and pass the time in the dept. There are so many people like Dr. Rajesh, who are not interested to work at the workplace irrespective of government job or corporate job. Whenever such persons are there in a team, it is a headache to the team lead, and whenever the number of such people increases in an organization it is a trouble to the organizational head. They not only do not work on their own but also do not allow others to work. Immediate effect is deceleration in the growth of an organization.

What is the reason for disinterest at workplace? It is difficult to give a one word answer for this question. Because, an organization is a complex institution in which so many extrinsic factors influence continuously on the work force. Along with that, if a person is not intrinsically motivated to work, he will easily be influenced by the things which operate on him to withdraw from the work. Slowly he will start spreading his boredom to his neighbours by calling them for tea/coffee very often and within a very short duration, a team of workers who are not interested to work will be formed who will be found most of the times in canteens or tea shops than at the workplace. Finally the whole organization will be filled with such employees and it will attain ‘stagnancy’. Canteen will attain ‘dynamism’ or ‘exponential growth’ you can say.

Other significant reason that appears is lack of ‘need for achievement’ (nAch) and ‘positive goal discrepancy’. If I refer to the above example again, I would say, for Dr. Rajesh, he is satisfied with a Ph.D. and professorship. He doesn’t have any further nAch. People with low nAch get satisfied easily with whatever they have done. They are very happy with what they are. So there is no chance of discrepancy about their current position. Definitely they will stop upgrading themselves and also try to hold back their colleagues.

If I think in Marxian terms, ‘alienation from work’ is also a probable reason for low motivation at workplace. But many psychological studies suggest that participatory management is not that successful in India as the people tend to establish personalised relations. Therefore, hierarchy is unavoidable, though it can incorporate participation of employees to certain extent.

As per many Indian psychological studies ‘External Locus of Control’ (ELC) is another major problem of most of the Indians. People with ELC always believe that if something new has to be done, then that has to be done by someone else, but not by themselves. For ex: 1. Even though we are facing the problem of corruption since long time, we needed Anna Hazare and his team to initiate an agitation. Later huge crowd joined them!!!   

2. In cities, we want city municipality to clean the city. Many of us are not intrinsically motivated to keep our surroundings clean.

How to tackle this problem of no motivation?

            First of all people should be ‘intrinsically motivated’ towards work. That means, work itself should reinforce the employees to work more than the salary or status what they get for their work. Above that, the person should be capable of bringing freshness to his daily routines by himself. People may find it difficult when it is same work place, same people, same schedule etc. Most of us might not have observed that we are capable to look at the same things as new things and it is inherent with us. I found out this in my niece, who is about 1 and half years of age. She expresses her happiness whenever she sees her doll even though it is with her since many months. She stops crying when we show that doll to her. She plays with it with the joy as if she has got it just now. What I inferred from this is that the child looks at the same things with new vision and with new perception. Every day, every thing is new to it. Then where or when do we lose this inherent nature of looking the same things in a new or different way? May be during the process of socialization. Learned psychologists would answer this question. But I would definitely say, if we strengthen our inherent capability of looking the same things in a new fashion, then there is no chance of occurrence of boredom in our life!! If we try to regain our inherent capability, then work will be interesting, life will be interesting!!!