How to apply incentive theory to the hottest Proje

How to apply incentive theory to project managers

incentive theory and its extension

if you don't consider the level of authority, anyone can encourage others to contribute to the project and improve their productivity. For project managers, although most of them have no direct authority on all the resources required for the success of the project, their understanding of motivation becomes critical. There are two comments from the project manager about the challenge:

How do I motivate these individuals

the project requires the integration of employees selected to serve the project outside the organizational team. What is the best way to not only motivate more employees in the project, but also encourage them to do a good job outside their own work

as you can see later, the main part of the role of project manager is to avoid hurting others' enthusiasm. Please look at the following question. The project manager has attracted our attention

if I don't catch up with the schedule I have made (3) fire prevention and suppression system schedule, I will feel overtime (usually unpaid) to catch up with the schedule. But if it is decided by others, I will feel that I have no obligation to achieve this progress. In other words, you can do as much as you can. I'm not sure whether this is a reasonable attitude. However, whether it is logical or not, this is what I really feel and control my enthusiasm

another project manager described the situation of a colleague who had been criticized many times by the boss. This colleague lost his motivation to work and was full of complaints and resistance to many things he was now asked to do. In both cases, motivation or lack of motivation is a challenge for the project manager

there are many incentive theories. Let's briefly introduce four of them and "provide a discussion for defining project management. It is important to understand motivation theory. Although these basic theories have a history of decades, it is still very important to understand them. For example, like Euclid's geometry and Einstein's theory of relativity, although they have been formed a long time ago, we still need to teach these theories

hierarchy of needs theory

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory (see Figure) shows (and has been proved by human practice) that motivation is a person's internal perception of five levels of needs. People are driven to achieve a specific goal because of an instinctive and internal need. Everyone has five levels of needs. The first level is physiological or physical needs (such as eating, sleeping, having shelter, etc.). A hungry person's goal is to eat. He will be guided by this goal to buy and prepare food to meet the hungry needs. (in fact, if we try to prevent this person from meeting this need, such as depriving him of the money to buy food, this person may meet his needs through robbery and other harmful behaviors.)

in order to change people, you need to position them in the unmet needs they have. Once they are satisfied, there is no motivational value in providing more food, sleep or shelter. Higher level requirements then come into play. The second level of needs is safety and security, the third level is social needs, the fourth level is the need to be respected or self-worth, and the fifth level is the need for self realization or self satisfaction. The recent more complete incentive theory suggests adding two layers between the fourth and fifth layers of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory: cognitive level, that is, the need to acquire knowledge and understanding; Aesthetic level, that is, the need for order and beauty. These additions have not changed the basic curriculum of project managers. In order to use Maslow's theory, project managers must figure out which levels of needs have been met. In this way, they can provide encouragement for unmet needs. The unmet needs of Americans usually belong to the third, fourth and fifth levels, so project managers need to provide opportunities to meet needs at these levels

if B2B project managers do not take corresponding incentives, people will feel that they are out of the working environment (see table 15-1). Note that although money plays an important role, it is not an incentive. When a person's salary rises, he will be very happy. This shows that he has been recognized and appreciated (meeting his own needs). However, if a person can meet his social needs only by joining an expensive country club, he really needs more money than a person who participates in some informal activities to meet his social needs

finally, you must realize that there are many tasks on the project, and it may be impossible or extremely difficult for you to motivate a person. A project manager once asked me, "how do you motivate people to complete the inconspicuous parts of the project, such as the remaining trivial and trivial work?" He may also be required to clean laboratory instruments or other similar work. In this regard, the best suggestion is to make people realize that all work is a mixture of ordinary and exciting. They can get joy from the passionate and challenging work, and carry this mood to complete other necessary but boring work, so as to eliminate the frustrating low tide

incentives

predehckherzberg has done excellent research on work and motivation, and he has examined specific factors that motivate employees. He found that many things (such as company policies, supervision, working conditions and wages, etc.) were not encouraging at all. He called these "health factors". Lack of health factors can make people feel negative, but these alone cannot work

on the contrary, there must be incentives to improve productivity. The main incentive factors are achievement, recognition, work itself, progress and growth. Achievement and recognition have short-term effects, while other factors have long-term effects. Therefore, it is very important to recognize (not routine) the main achievements of employees

x theory/y theory

Douglas mcgeor's "X theory/y theory" positions two kinds of people's assumptions about others. Managers who hold the X assumption theory believe that people lack the desire to do a good job and are even unwilling to work. Therefore, managers with x-theory thinking believe that incentive or non incentive is only effective for some people. This mindset always shows an authoritarian style, in which managers always force others to comply

y theory is based on the assumption that everyone else wants to do a good job - people enjoy work and are willing to work. This mindset often highlights a participatory style. Managers can use employees' self orientation to manage. Managers begin to spend more energy on answering requests and removing obstacles, so employees can do excellent work

although there are indeed people with incorrect attitudes and slowdowns in the real world, we will find that most people are eager to make achievements in their own fields, so everyone agrees that y theory is more practical. However, this does not mean that the strategy derived from the X hypothesis theory is unreasonable or useless. Sometimes people do need encouragement. Sometimes people really need to "reprimand". Sometimes the only way to make people focus on what you want them to focus on is to make different speeches according to the occasion

behavior modification

b · f · shnner proposed a behavior modification theory that supports enthusiasm encouragement. As the name suggests, it is to reward good behavior. Using Skinner's theory, when employees perform appropriately, managers should encourage people to change their behavior (that is, to be consistent with the project objectives) by giving rewards. This "reward" is also consistent with Herzberg's conclusion, that is, a sense of achievement and identity

if a designer is doing well in your project, it is best to send him a letter and copy it to his boss (or vice versa), or even add it to his personal profile (for praise). On the contrary, if you have started to practice the theory of behavior modification and affirmation reinforcement, once he sometimes does not do well, you do not need to do anything. Without positive reinforcement (for the employee), it is enough to explain the problem. Further, this lack will prompt the designer to take the initiative to ask why his work did not meet the requirements

when I just entered my career, when my engineering team just completed the first unit of an advanced retail system, my company president wrote me the following profound personal letter:

Dear milt:

I want to express the center's best wishes for your outstanding contribution to the technical success of satrack project. This project has made remarkable progress in aspheric manufacturing. As a member of the working team, you must be very proud

our company is recognized to be at the forefront of this development activity, and you have made great contributions to this achievement

I know your work is great, and you have sacrificed many nights and weekends for your work

it's really gratifying and gratifying that we have employees like you who dare to face challenging problems and finally make breakthroughs

people who receive this letter will feel encouraged and will put similar or even greater efforts into their future work, and this effort will be supported by their families as always. Other positive incentives include compensation (such as souvenirs hung on the wall, formal lunches or dinners, travel, etc.), or publishing stories or photos of employees in the company's newspapers. These will stimulate the enthusiasm of employees, because they represent the recognition of employees and the affirmation of their achievements

three effective methods

objective management

another practical method available to project managers is the objective management method (MBO). Variants of this method include result management method (MBR) and commitment management method (MBC). As the name suggests, these methods focus the attention of managers and employees on work results (goals or results), rather than on what methods employees choose to achieve results. In this way, managers are liberated to pay more attention to what they want, and employees can also have more freedom to think about how to complete the work in their own way

to use this simple and powerful method, project managers need to reach an agreement with the results agreed by employees. Because this is a general method, employees may belong to the operation team or a member of the support team, and the agreed results must be as testable, measurable, specific and achievable as the project objectives. These results must be recorded on paper (even in a standard form) and signed by both employees and managers. If any changes are needed during the implementation process, these changes must be discussed by everyone, and the original written records must be revised and re signed. Please note that when you