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A Job Description for the Business Owner - стр. 23

You have probably noticed that people have various levels of motivation with respect to their work. Some begin work with enthusiasm, but for others, it takes a great deal of effort to make them work, even under the constant supervision of a superior. Some are really interested in their jobs, yet others see their job simply as a harsh necessity. It is all about motivation. In modern society, motivation can mean a person’s desire to work, the actions a manager performs to achieve results, or even a company's wage system. In its simplest terms, the word motivation is defined as an impulse that propels a person toward some activity. Motivation comes from the word motive, which means “an incentive, purpose, or reason for some action.” Motive, in turn, comes from the Latin word movēre, which means “to move.” Thus motivation is something that makes people move in some area of activity.

While managing companies, I noticed that there are those who are dedicated to their jobs, and those who are free riders, who are willing to go along for the ride as long as someone else does the driving. It is pretty easy to deal with the first type of person. She is loyal to the company and produces, to the extent of her competency, good results. To put it simply, these are people you can rely on. When there is a need to solve urgent problems, you call upon these individuals to obtain the needed support. L. Ron Hubbard provided a good classification of different levels of motivation.>4 He described four main levels of motivation, from highest to lowest:

Duty

Personal Conviction

Personal Gain

Money

Duty

The highest motivation level is duty. On this level, people consider a company they work for to be part of their lives. They are loyal to the company and its interests. They are reliable and give support to managers. There may be many people working for a company, but rarely are the majority those with a duty level of motivation.

Personal Conviction

People who are not company patriots but consider themselves professionals and try to do their jobs well according to their personal standards of professionalism are people on the personal conviction level of motivation. For example, this could be an accountant who does not care what the company does or how well it succeeds, but by virtue of personal conviction, thinks it is important to ensure that the accounting department is run properly.

Personal Gain

The next level of motivation is personal gain. People on this level do their jobs just to get some benefits from the company. These benefits range from the intangible, such as experience, knowledge, and networking, to the tangible, such as the company’s convenient location, compensation, and other benefits. These people often tell you that they are ready to deliver fantastic results if you provide higher pay and better benefits. Sometimes they sound very convincing. If you have ever gone along with this kind of person’s plea, then you know it does not work. Their level of production does not increase in proportion to their appetite.

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