One question that organisations often ask is 'How do I motivate my people to do the things I want them to do?' The fact is, they can't motivate people. People are already motivated by something; the key is to determine what motivates them and to use this knowledge to channel their energies into organisational goals. A study carried out by Kovach (1994), collected preference data from US employees and employers. Employees were asked to rank their own preference from a list and the employers were asked to rank the list as they thought their employees would. Kovach found that employees tended to rate 'interesting work' as most important, while employers thought that pay would be most important. Misconception of employee preferences and motivators can reduce productivity; therefore organisations must endeavour to seek out personal preferences of their employees in order to get the best out of them.…
