MOTIVATION OF WORKFORCE IN CHANGING WORLD OF WORK!

By- Ramesh Sangare, President, Human Resource Development Corporation

Nagpur Pune (India)

Man-Management Principles & Practices, have these changed?

There is lot of talk on the issues of cultural, gender, regional, socio-economic, political and generational diversity management at workplace, in view of the Generation-Y taking center-stage in the gamut of running industries, business enterprises, health services, rapidly emerging huge service sector, IT, ITeS etc. around the world in general and India in particular, as India has the largest Gen-Y to the tune of almost 60% of the population.

What, has really changed? -

In the last decade of the last Century, industrial, corporate and business world has accepted Globalization of Business, embracing WTO, bringing world closer in spite of diverse political and economic conditions, which continued to grow till date. Yet, the mind-boggling negative impact of nearly the last two years of Covid-19 Pandemic and now uneasy conditions created by Russia-Ukraine War have shaken up and disrupted the normal growth of the business globally and locally. But now whole world is showing signs of return to normalcy, with guarded vision and expectations. ?

??Technology, ?

??World has become flat,

??Demography,

??Global & Local Economic-Political Equations,

??Diversity of HR,

??Gender Factor,

??Proliferation of Specifics in Academia,

??Life Expectancy,

??Standard of Living of Working People,

??Pace of Business and Pace of Life!?

?What has really NOT changed?

??Human Expectations- Needs, Wants, Hopes, Dreams, Fears, Aspirations, An Urge to Survive and Grow!

(Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg, McClelland and others are not written off.)

Regardless of age dimension of demography, have the basic tenets of Man-Management principles and practices undergone the change in the current scenario? Has the human being changed in its aspirations, hopes, dreams, fears, apprehensions, motivations? Human nature is universally unchanged throughout the known human history of over 5000 years. The people loved and hated, they befriended and made enemies, they built and destroyed, they won the battles and lost them, they toiled and they shirked, they exploited and they empowered…. the story is the same now! Thoughts might have changed but emotions remained unchanged.??

What, could be really changed?

??Human Perceptions? Attitudes? And Behaviors? & Culture??– Yes, all of these to greatest possible extent!

Time and again it has been proved that the thoughts which are the basis of perceptions could be changed for better or worse, not only in individual case but on mass scale. All of us have changed outlook in socio-political and economic issues. So, the organization, society or nation has to work for changing the perceptions so as to run them smoothly to achieve final objectives. That holds true for managing the people on the job, especially in complex and diverse situations.

?Power Shift…….Paradigm Shift in Balance of Power i.e.

??Manpower Demand-&-Supply situation reversed drastically during the last Decade

??In spite of lakhs of engineers, technocrats and others pouring out of Academic Institutes, talent crunch is being faced by the industries and business houses, due to questionable employability of an unemployed, due to disconnect of age-old unchanged curriculum with needs of industries??

??Employers are now on tenterhooks resulting into Organizational Anxiety for want of right talent at right time at the right place

??Sudden outburst of Love, Affection, Care, Sympathy, Empathy, Freedom of Action, Tolerance to Failures etc. – almost a Push Button Panic Reaction on the part of Employers to search, attract, retain the talents, empower them for value addition began in full swing, especially in IT, ITeS and Service Sectors.???

Impact of Power Shift…

??Employees at all the levels realized their indispensability

??Talent crunch, talent search & hunt, talent empowerment, talent retention became watch-words

??Phenomenal Escalation of Cost of Manpower

??Money alone as a Motivational Tool reached its limitation

??“Everything on a platter on the Day-1”- Demanding Attitude Forcefully Emerged???

??Attrition Rate jumped very high

?What all of us forgot and/or Ignored?

Lessons from Recent Recession

??The Business World is vulnerable

??The Business World is not guaranteed and is full of uncertainties

??The Business World is ruthless

??The Business World is turbulent

??The Business world is ultimate builder of the Human society around the world, not the political ideologies and not the war-mongering.

The Great Business Ventures thrive on the principles and practice of blending Creativity, innovations with Bounded Rationality.

Mission, Values, Vision- Organizational Myths or Realities? -

???Do Mission, Values, Vision really percolate down to the Gen-Y at the Sub-conscious level?

??Are Mission, Values, Vision, seriously taken by the very people who conceptualize and word it?

??Are these requirements of QS Certifications only?

??Are these really the ornamental show pieces decorating the walls of the corporate offices and industrial establishments?

Moral of the story is Organizational Leadership needs to walk the talk.

Gray Areas of Gen-Y-

Every generation has its plus and minus points, generations have dynamic relations with the situations around them, and it is necessary to understand the behavioral fall-out is the result of concurrent socio-economic-political scenario, which affects the mindsets of the society on mass scale. Gen-Y shows the following signs of change causing ruffles in the management world ---

??Changing Value Systems

??Heavily tilted on mainly monetary gains.

??Nascent Associations with Organizations

??Dissonance of Individual Goals and Organizational Goals

??Overtly opportunistic with less consequences of futuristic developments

??Drastically Decreased tendency of meaningful reading

???Intelligence High but Questionable EIQ

How could it be done?

??Through Communication backed by sincere intentions and solid action—

Sensing, Feeling, Thinking, Judging, Communication, Perception, Attitude and Behavior.

?Constant Meaningful Dialogue with Gen-Y

??Business Leaders must be visible throughout the cross sections of the organization

??Logical combination of tele-com, internet, interface would be more effective

??Training, Developmental activities should not only aim at fulfilling Competency gaps but at inspiring them

??Sharing, Counseling, Mentoring gear up dialogue

??No excessive dose of artificial cultural events

??Giving comfort and happiness is the NOT Org Goal but doing business is, through constant empowerment and challenges???

?Human Motivation would always remain a perennial enigma and challenge to all working Managers in all the domains of Industries, Corporate and Business world, not only in India but around the world, as there no one Panacea for all the challenges, but the positive will to govern and build the world around would always win!

?--*--