Workplace motivation and the Infinite Stake theory

Workplace motivation is an old age research topic, and it is taking another dimension with unique characteristics of the millennials. The millennial generation poses a different challenge to workplace motivation than the generation before it. Motivation is the reason why people act or take actions. Employers desire their employees to work and do things that will achieve the organizations’ goals. What makes employees do what is required of them might be the need to earn income and meet obligations, but what employees do extra is beyond the basic pay.

Numerous theories on motivation can be applied to the workplace and understand what drives employees to deliver beyond the usual and minimal expectations.

The Maslow hierarchy of needs theory is much more relevant as it covers the spectrum of reasons why someone needs to be committed and deliver on their job functions. However, the young employee of today prioritizes the self-actualization need and such need is not the last on the list on the menu. Therefore, the millennial has been found to take decisions to exit employment without consideration for how the basic needs will be met. Herzberg’s hygiene factor is vital in today’s workplace. Employees aside from the base pay want better supervision, relationships, and excellent working conditions to complement the motivators-recognition, responsibility, opportunity for growth and advancement. There are no motivators where the hygiene factor is lacking.

I love the Self-Determination theory (SDT). It focuses on the intrinsic and the extrinsic factors. Today’s workplace must be self-motivating and fulfil the three basic needs of the employees. These needs are the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. I will summarize relatedness in the word of John C Maxwell: people quit people, not the organization.

The Maslow, Herzberg, and SD theories are grouped as content-based motivation. They are the foundation for the use of motivation to engage employees in the workplace. No doubt, there is a considerable risk of having disengaged and actively disengaged employees in your team. The risk is with a cost to your brand and business growth.

Other theories on motivation in the workplace are Equity, Expectancy, Goal Setting, and Situational theories. The Equity theory (Adams, 1963) focuses on staff having the perception of fairness in reward compared to the effort that generated the outcome. Vroom’s expectancy theory expands the equity theory adding instrumentality and valance. Valence is how the employee values work or the reward. Locke and Latham’s Goal Setting theory emphasized smart goals as key motivators supported by effective feedback. Hackman and Oldham’s Situational theory identified skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback as a panacea to employee motivation. These are further categorized into three states. State one is the meaning of the work to employees, and state two is greater responsibility for the outcome, while state three is the degree of success from work.

Read also: Organisational coaching: Motivation or inspiration?

As good as these theories are, and their numerous contributions to understanding what motivates employees, the changes in people and their psychological makeup have left much to be desired as to the effectiveness of the theories on the one hand and the efficiency of the usage to drive employee engagement on the other hand.

However, the Infinite Stake theory bridges the gaps as it focuses on motivation and building a life-long relationship between employees and employers. As the proponent of the Infinite Stake theory, I can reiterate the underlying thought and philosophy to be a positional view of a party in a relationship, interaction, and engagement. It is a belief that your business, personal or charitable arrangements with others will outlive you if done in a way that invests in them and not only to your advantage. It is a concept of mutual benefits.

An employee in an Infinite Stake-oriented environment will see their future in the company and go the extra mile to do things regularly to achieve the Organisation’s objective. Engaged employees under an Infinite Stake environment will reward the organization’s loyalties beyond employment. They see themselves as part of the owners and are not likely required to be micro-managed, being self-motivated just like the ants. The Infinite Stake environment where all the stakeholders are treated as contributors or rewarded in a fair portion of their contribution will meet the yearnings of all the theories on workplace motivation.

Thus, creating an Infinite Stake environment will meet the self-actualization needs under Maslow theory of needs. The motivators in Herzberg’s two factors’ approach will be met. The three components of autonomy, competence, and relatedness of the SDT and three Situational theory’s states are also a natural habitat in the Infinite Stake environment.

My team at Mentoras Leadership Limited implemented a few elements of the Infinite Stake theory with some of our clients in the last two years. The results improved job satisfaction, reduced attrition rate, eliminated team sabotage, and increased brand value and profitability. In the next edition, I will share how a company saved a massive exodus of its core staff last December through a radical alignment of employees’ aspirations with that of the organization.