It is a fact that surviving members owe it to the managers for retaining their presence in the employee rolls. The task of management is to make employees feel gratuitous for this recognition. This, in turn, could aid in their renewed commitment to their own careers as well as appreciation for the managers who have made this possible. Another interesting approach to workforce size reduction that is not contradictory to the essence of Conaty’s message is Job Enrichment as formulated by Frederick Herzberg. Herzberg’s contribution to motivation theory adds wit and light-hearted humor to the subject. His conception of KITA (Kick In The Pants) as an ineffective form of employee motivation is well articulated in his article titled One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? His thesis is that raising salaries, improving work conditions and shuffling tasks are passé in terms of motivating employees. He instead advocates new and out-of-the-box ideas for keeping employee spirits up – most of which consistent with Bill Conaty’s approach to HRM. Negative KITA strategies that work on a punitive basis are outright ineffective. Even Positive KITA programs such as Reducing Time Spent at Work, Spiralling Wages, Fringe Benefits, etc, have only limited efficacy. In this context, the process of Job Enrichment (positively contrasted to Job Enlargement) proposed by Herzberg will alleviate some of the management’s problems. Herzberg notes that there are various methods toward Job Enrichment and their underlying philosophy is this: “If you have someone on a job, use him. If you can’t use him on the job, get rid of him, either via automation, or by selecting someone with lesser ability. If you can’t use him and you can’t get rid of him, you will have a motivation problem”. (Herzberg, 1968)
References:
Terpstra, David E, Theories of Motivation – Borrowing the Best, Personnel Journal (pre-1986); Jun 1979; ProQuest Central, p.376.
Herzberg, Frederick, One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?, Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb 1968.
The Effective Manager, Chapter 6: Motivation Theories, p.185 – p.189.
Kreitner, R & Kinicki, A 2013, Organisational Behaviour , 10th edn, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, New York.
Kreitner and Kinicki, OB in Action Case study (HOW Should Managers handle Tough Employment Decisions?): 10th ed. Page 234.
Fishbein, M.; Ajzen, I. (1975), Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
Murphy, Jim (2009), Inner Excellence, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-163504-2