Involving the Individual in the Job

In the previous chapters we examined the process by which individuals are brought into the organisation. At this time attempts are made to select employees with the potential to perform jobs effectively. Whether or not employees live up to the expectations of those who selected them depends on management’s success in motivating them to work effectively. In other words: capability × motivation = performance. Though this equation is oversimplified, it stresses the centrality of motivation to the employment relationship. Personnel specialists are charged with responsibility to find this ‘philosopher’s stone’ or means of resolving management’s problems, so far as employees are concerned. The next few chapters look at techniques aimed at increasing the effectiveness of workers. In this chapter we are concerned with the general nature of motivation to work and its relationship to techniques concerned with the management of people.