Means for Effective Motivation

Motivation is a very complex phenomenon. In order to motivate people towards organizational goals and effective actions, management has to create a congenial physical, social and psychological atmosphere. Human behavior is influenced by a host of complex factors. Understanding these factors and adjusting them to suit the organizational need is essential for effective motivation.

The management can employ the following means for effective employee motivation:

1. Fair Remuneration: Most of the basic and many of the secondary human needs can be satisfied by fairly remunerating the employees. Nature of job, cost, cost of living, pay scales of other organizations, the wage structures and scales should properly be evaluated and determined.
2. Job Satisfaction: Management should place employees properly according to their merits, aptitudes, interests and capacities. The well placed employees take pride, interest and initiative in their work and derive job satisfaction. Job satisfaction leads to realization of goals.
3. Job Security: Job security is a great motivating factor. Security is a great psychological need of a man and hence must be satisfied for turning up the morale.
4. Fair Promotions: Everybody aspires for growth and development in his life. Organizational promotions satisfy various physiological, social and psychological needs of the people. Management should therefore, create arrange for promotional training and education to enable employees to get promotions.
5. Congenial Working Environment: Working conditions for the employees must be made congenial. The adequate provision of light, air, safety, sanitation, cleanliness, noise prevention, smoke and fume clearance should be made for physical health and mental health and satisfaction. Congenial environment releases tension and tiredness and motivate them to work.
6. Honest and Competent Leadership: If the leaders and managers are honest, impartial, sympathetic and capable of understanding employee hopes and aspirations, emotions and sentiments, prospects and problems, motives and attitudes, they would be able to win the control, maintain discipline and motivate their employees. They must treat employees with love and affection, but at the same time they must be able to maintain such distance that the discipline and respect are not at the slake.
7. Efficient System of Grievance Redressal: Employee grievance is a major factors detracting employee from work and forming an apathetic attitudes towards manage. If management introduces a perfect system of discovering the employee grievances, their causes and remedies and remove them honesty and regularly, it will win the confidence of the employees that the management is really interested in their well being and there is great desire in management to keep them happy and contented.
8. Freedom of Association, Mobility, Expression etc.: The need of association is a great need of human being. It is therefore, the management should satisfy their need by providing freedom to individuals to form their cultural and social associations whether formal or informal.
9. Efficient Organization, Coordination and Control: Efficient organization may include adequate and efficient physical facilities and organization of manpower. Proper delegation of authority and fixation of responsibilities avoid confusion and conflicts to bring unity in action and purpose. Similarly, efficient coordination of activities lead to harmonious relations and approach and the adequate system of control checks all splintering and cross purpose activities. To the great extent the feeling of security, certainty, fairness, confidence, interest and initiative is a result of efficient organization, coordination and control.
10. Democratic Management Technique: If the employees are given participation in management decisions, they began to feel themselves as a part and parcel of organization. It satisfies their instinct of belonging to the organization, gives them psychological satisfaction and fosters the feeling of team and cooperation. A sense of responsibility and duty is generated.
11. Other Incentives: Several other physical and psychological incentives may be offered by the management to tone up employee morale and motivate them towards stated objectives. The efficient training progress, the affectionate attitude of superiors towards their subordinates and such innumerable measures can motivate people.

Budgetary Control

Budgetary control compares actual project expenditure with budgeted expenditure. Actions are taken to correct deviations.

• Budget: A budget is a statement of future expenditures for planning and controlling project's financial resources. It focuses on input control. Activities are controlled before the operations start.

Types of Budgets
Project Budgets can be of three types:

1. Operating Budgets: They consist of plans for the use of raw materials, goods and services. They specify quantity and costs.
• A unit becomes a responsibility center if a single manager is responsible for its operations. Based on the concept of responsibility, operating budgets can be a cost center.
• Cost center has its own budget and the unit manager is responsible for controlling costs. Cost centers are concerned with input costs.
2. Financial Budgets: They consist of plans for spending and mobilizing financial resources. They ensure that project funds will be available when required. They can be :
• Cash Budget: It estimates cash flow on a daily or weekly basis. Surpluses and shortfalls of cash can be managed by this budget.
• Capital Expenditure Budget: It is a plan for investment in capital assets, such as building, equipment, etc. It involves sizable financial commitment over project period.
• Master Budget: It integrates all operating and financial budgets of the project.
• Programme Budget: (PPBS: Planning, Programming Budgeting System):
• PPBS is Planning, Programming Budgeting System is also known as Programme Budgeting. In Economics, it is known as Output Budgeting.
• PPBS was first introduced n US Department of Defence in 1961. In 1966, the US government adopted PPBS in all its departments and agencies. At present, PPBS is widely used by many countries and organization.
•  PPBS allocates budget in terms of programmes and projects. Cost allocation is related to outputs rather than inputs. Traditional budgeting allocated costs according to line items, such as salaries, maintenance, equipment etc. PPBS allocates budget according to programmes which consist of a bundle of projects.
• PPBS is based on system analysis.

It consists of four steps:

1. Goals and priorities of each programme or project are clearly identified.
2. Success of each programme or project in achieving its goals is reviewed.
3. Costs of each programme or project till the end of its life.
4. Each programme or project is selected for continuation or rejection on the basis of its effectiveness in achieving its objectives.
• Projects make up the programme. PPBS approach is useful in project management. It is mainly needed for allocating resources to projects. It is an important tool for decision making regarding continuation or dropping of a project. It can also be used for project cost control.

 

Project Control Process

Project Control Process

1. Setting Project Standards: Targets are set for each project activity in terms of time, cost, quality etc. They serve ads standards for control. Project planning is used to set such standards.
2. Performance Monitoring: Actual performance of each project activity is measured to provide feedback. Project reporting system is the source of such information.
3. Find Performance Deviations: The actual performance is compared with the standards to find out deviation for each activity. The causes and incidence of deviatiions are analyzed.
4. Corrective Actions: Corrective actions are taken to improve performance in future period. This is the crux of project control. It remedies the deviations to keep the system stable.
1. Project control system should focus on critical points in which performance deviatiions cause  the greatest damage to the project. It should find and resolve problems to get the project back on track.

Areas for Project Control

1. Time Control: Time control can be of two types:
• Normal Time Control: It is the estimated time for completion of an activity. Increase beyond this time is not likely to result in cost reduction.
• Crash Time Control: It is the estimated time of completion of an activity which cannot be reduced further irrespective  of cost considerations.
• Every project has an optimal time schedule which is effectively controlled to check overruns. Time delays result in cost overruns.
2. Cost Control: It involves the following:

• Setting up standard costing and budgetary control systems for the project. Project accounts capture costs as they are committed.
• Allocating responsibilities for cost control at task level.
• Ensuring proper allocation of costs to project codes; ensuring that costs are properly authorized.
• Measuring actual costs and comparing them with standard costs to prepare cost reports.
• Identifying deviations to take corrective actions to control cost overruns and maintain financial discipline.
• Value engineering can be used for Cost Reduction.

Types of Project Costs can be:

1. Budgeted Cost: Estimated during project planning.
2. Contracted Cost: Cost provided in the contract.
3. Committed Cost: Cost of purchase orders issued.
4. Earned Value: Cost of work in progress.
5. Invoiced Cost: Accrued Cost/ Invoice by contractor.
6. Incurred Cost: Payment authorized.

Control

Control is a managerial process. It is interrelated with planning. Planning provides standards for control. Control measures actual performance and compares it with standards to identify deviations. Deviations are analyzed to take corrective actions.

• Control is a continuous process. To be effective, it should give attention to critical control points or benchmarks where deviations adversely affect the attainment of targets.

Types of Control
Control can be of the following types:

The Process of Control

1. Pre-control (Feed-forward control): It is inputs-based. It is initiated before the start of the activity. It anticipates problems in advance and takes preventive corrective actions. Examples are specifications for quality control, capital budgeting methods, acquisition of right human resources.
2. Concurrent Control (Yes/No Control): It is transformation based. It is initiated during the implementation of the activity. It consists of actions to ensure that operations are being conducted according to plans. Problems are corrected as they arise. Example is quality control from process to process.
3. Post Control (Feedback Control): It is output based. It is initiated after the completion of the activity. It is based on feedback of performance results. Example is financial analysis.

Control Cycle
Control is a cyclical process. It involves the following steps:
1. Setting Standards (What should be done?)
Planning sets standards fro performance. Standards are the starting point of control. They are target or yardstick of performance.

• Standards can be in terms of quality, quantity, costs, income and time. Standard costs, standard operating time, sales goals per salespersone, quality standards, kilometers per liter are example of standards.
• Standards should be clearly understandable. They should be reasonable. Employees should see them fair and attainable.

2. Measuring Performance (What actually was done?)
The second step in control is measurement of actual performance within a given period. It is a continuous on-going process to get feedback.

• Internal reports relating to quantity, quality, costs, income, time etc., provide information about actual performance.

3. Finding Deviations (Extent and causes of difference)

 The third step in control is comparison of actual performance with standards. Performance can be equal to, be higher, or be lower than standards.

• The magnitude of deviation is identified. The causes and incidence of deviation are analyzed.
• The responsibility for deviation is located.

4. Corrective Actions (Future standards)
The performance is evaluated in terms of deviations. Corrective actions are taken. The actions can be:

• Do nothing: If the performance deviations are withing allowable tolerance, status quo is maintained.
• Correct deviations: Actions are taken to correct the deviations. They can be more training, better raw materials, improvements in design, greater motivation etc.
• Change Standards: Standards are revised to make the appropriate and realistic.
• Control should focus on critical control points. They are of areas where deviations from standards will cause the greatest damage to project. Corrective actions can be most effectively applied to such critical control points.