Defining Motivation

“The term motivation derives from the Latin word movere, meaning "to move." In the present context, motivation represents "those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal-directed. Managers need to understand these psychological processes if they are to successfully guide employees toward accomplishing organizational objectives”.

As a farm manager, it is your task to get work done by means of people because the results you achieve largely depend on these people. You can only experience success if your employees are willing (prepared) to work. Even if you as the manager should have all the knowledge, skills, equipment and material available, you will not be able to achieve much if the workers don’t have that will to work.

In order to fulfil your task as manager, you must develop the will to work with your employees. Your employees must therefore be motivated to work and thus assist you in achieving the division’s/ section’s objectives. Motivation refers to the gratification of human needs.

What can the farm manager do to get employees motivated?

The manager must be aware of the fact that each person has certain needs that he tries to gratify – his whole being is focused on this. Certain of these needs is to a large extent gratified in one’s work context and the manager must help his employees in this connection. Human needs (according to Maslow) are the following:

Self-Realisation

Each person fears failure. The average person, therefore, strives to develop his full potential, experience achievement in his work and make progress towards specific personal objectives. Most people would like to say: “I have achieved something.”

Self-realisation doesn’t necessarily have to be experienced in the work context. It can also be experienced in other fields, for instance in a person’s sporting, religious, recreational and domestic activities.

Status and Prestige

The average person strives to feel important, gain the esteem and respect of others and generally enjoy definite status and prestige in the eyes of his colleagues. A change in job title for instance gives a person status value and is of more worth to him than a salary increase.

Social

Everybody fears rejection and has a natural desire to belong to a group. He would like to have friends and maintain healthy family relations. He wants to be accepted by others and experience the feeling of being needed by others.

Safety and Security

Everyone fears the uncertain or the unknown. He wants to experience a feeling of security – at home and also in his work. As he would protect himself against danger at home, he will also protect himself against danger at work. He doesn’t want to lose his job and strives to ensure stability in his career.

Physiological

Every person has the following basic needs that have to be gratified, namely: hunger, thirst, air and accommodation. A manager will hardly be able to motivate an employee who doesn’t have accommodation and who is hungry.

One way in which we can gratify the above-mentioned needs is by working. We are therefore willing to work because it helps us to gratify our needs. The more needs one gratifies in one’s work situation, the greater is one’s motivation to work and the more one is willing to do.

It is consequently possible to determine which aspects make people willing to work hard. It is however important to remember that people’s needs differ and that aspects motivating one person might not be important to another person. The manager must therefore attempt to understand everyone’s needs and treat the workers accordingly.