A recent article published on Knowledge@Wharton, titled “Putting a Face to a Name: The Art of Motivating Employees,” emphasises that workers have better results when they can identify with those they serve. Specifically, face-to-face interactions and task significance (“what I do makes a difference”) are key drivers for motivation and performance.
Research by Adam Grant, Ph.D., a Wharton management professor, indicates that making human connections is critical for motivation, leadership and high job performance. He found that face-to-face interactions — no matter how superficial — can lead to significant improvements in performance, and that motivation and performance increase simply by an employee’s awareness of the impact of his or her job on others.
Dr. Grant has observed this result through studies of all types of jobs and roles in the workplace, from customer service representatives, managers, nurses, doctors and medical technicians to security guards, engineers, salespeople, police officers and fire fighters — based on when people can directly see the impact of their efforts.
In a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Dr. Grant found that lifeguards at a community recreation center who read about how their ability to avoid fatalities made a difference were stronger leaders/performers. Their work improved by 40% in contrast to lifeguards who merely learned that lifeguarding can be personally enriching.
Grant points out that in today’s economy, where work is often virtual without the end user physically present, “it is important for employers to build in systems that reinforce employees’ awareness of whom they are helping.”
As leaders work on processes and systems designed to improve motivation and performance, it is important to be aware of the issue of technology and how it can create distance between employees and the end users of their work.
Dr. Grant suggests that focus on the mission of the organisation is one way to overcome the challenge of a virtual workplace and lack of direct interaction and is a successful strategy for creating the energy for motivation necessary to achieve high performance and quality of service.
Reference
Putting a face to a name: the art of motivating employees. Knowledge@Wharton. (2010)
Grant, A. M. (2008). The significance of task significance: job performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 108–124.
