This Learning Activity will help increase your understanding of what motivation is and how you to a greater extent can motivate yourself.

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1 page 1 Estimated time: 20 minutes This Learning Activity will help increase your understanding of what motivation is and how you to a greater extent can motivate yourself. GOALS After completing this Learning Activity on Motivation, you should: Understand what motivation is Understand what motivates you Understand how motivation is related to behaviours Know how to build you own motivation HOW Read the following pages and in the end you will find a set of questions. Answer them individually or together with your colleagues, perhaps as a common activity in a team meeting. There could be several definitions of motivation. Here we use a definition from Edward L. Deci, Professor of Psychology in the Social Sciences at the University of Rochester: Motivation is energy for action what drives individuals to act. It is about what gives energy to certain behaviours. This definition focuses on behaviours and in this Learning Activity you will learn to understand what makes us do what we are doing. Motivation and behaviours We are not more or less motivated in general instead we are motivated to certain behaviours. You may be motivated to remodel the kitchen, but not so motivated to run the New York marathon, or vice versa. In other words, motivation is individual and linked to a certain behaviour in a certain situation and not a general characteristic.

2 page 2 It can be easy to focus on reaching a specific result. But in order to reach that result we have to focus on the behaviour that leads to the wished outcome. Sometimes we talk about behaviours we do not want to have. We might want to stop cutting corners, to stop spending too much time in meetings, to stop using the old order system, etc. Instead, think of the behaviours you want to do more of. You might want to ask your customers more questions to understand their need, you might want to start using the new order system. If you focus on what you want to do more of it will become easier to see what you need to do in order to reach your wished results. Focus on desired behaviours automatically leads to less unwanted behaviours. Identifying motivating behaviours the feedback test Learn to distinguish between what you are doing and who you are. A behaviour is something you are doing and expressed as a verb, for example you are walking or he is arguing. The best way of finding the behaviours that motivate you is to be as specific as possible. For example, you might enjoy selling (which is a verb, therefore a behaviour) but what is it exactly that you enjoy about it? One way to test if you are focusing on an individual specific behaviour is to make the feedback test. Imagine that your manager tells you: "You are so good, you are excellent at selling", do you know what to do more of? Probably not. The feedback does not give you a clear picture of what you do well while selling something to a customer. You got appreciation and it is never wrong but you do not know exactly what you did well in the conversation with the customer. Hearing you are good! is pleasant but too general to provide you with any information on what to do more of. Try instead to focus on specific behaviors and imagine your manager tells you: "You have such a great eye contact with your customers and you ask great questions. This comment provides you with much more information you know what in your behavior that is appreciated. Now, use the same technique on yourself to figure out what it is you enjoy in a a given situation and do more of it to get the results you want. And also use this approach when giving feedback to your colleaugues and their motivation for the mentioned behaviors will increase!

3 page 3 Hygiene factors vs motivating factors Another way of looking at motivation comes from the American psychologist Fredrick Herzberg who has been very influential in modern motivation research with his differentiating between hygiene factors and motivating factors. Hygiene factors are things we expect to find at work, such as an acceptable working environment, a reasonable wage and a good and fair leader. As employees we expect that the hygiene factors are already in place, without any extra effort. However there are elements beyond the basic hygiene factors. Motivational factors are things that represent something more than the hygiene factors beyond the expected. Hygiene factors usually meet basic needs such as salary, a healthy work environment, good leadership and people policy. Motivational factors are instead usually linked to the need of self-fulfillment, such as responsibility, success, development and recognition. What is considered hygiene factors or motivational factors however varies from person to person depending on situation and current needs. You need to find out what your hygiene factors and motivators are. General rewards rarely work for all. You can say that motivation factors have a much stronger influence on behaviour compared to hygiene factors. Example: A company has offered morning fika (coffee and sandwich) for free for many years. The purpose was initially to increase job satisfaction and increase the motivation amongst the co-workers, with good intentions. All of a sudden, the management team decides to withdraw the free morning fika. As a consequence the co-workers become really upset. Evidently, the free morning fika has become a hygiene factor which the co-workers expect to have at work. Meeting hygiene factors does not make us satisfied - it merely prevents us from becoming dissatisfied. The word hygiene is deliberately medical, as it is an analogy of the need to do something that is necessary. Such factors do not contribute towards healing the patient, they only prevent people from getting sick. On the other side, there is a separate set of needs which, when resolved, do make us satisfied. These are called motivators. These motivators will

4 page 4 influence what we do (behaviours) to a much greater extent than hygiene factors does. Example: I need to be paid on time each month so I can pay my bills. If I am not paid on time, I get really unhappy. But when I get paid on time, I hardly notice it. On the other hand, when my manager gives me recognition, I feel good. I do not expect this every day and, especially, I do not miss not being praised all of the time. Hygiene factors Companies need to have the hygiene factors in place if they are considered inadequate by the employees, they can cause great dissatisfaction. Hygiene factors include: Company policy and administration Wages, salaries and other financial remuneration Quality of supervision Quality of inter-personal relations Good working conditions Feelings of job security Motivator factors Motivator factors are based on an individual s need for personal growth. When they exist, motivator factors actively create job satisfaction. If they are effective, then they can motivate an individual to achieve above-average performance and effort. Motivator factors include: Responsibility Challenging / stimulating work. Gaining recognition Opportunity for promotion Sense of personal achievement and personal growth in a job.

5 page 5 To summarize; hygiene factors are needed to make sure that employees are not dissatisfied. Motivational factors are needed in order to motivate employees to perform better or with other words - to do certain behaviours. What motivates you? In order to understand what motivates you, you have to ask yourself what you need in order to feel motivated it is individual! Understandig your own motivators is key to success and satisfaction. Do you know what motivates you in your assignment at IKEA? Once you understand what your motivators are you can express them and look for ways to increase them in your everyday life. On the other hand, if you cannot find them in your current assignment, it might explain why you sometimes feel de-motivated. Express your motivator to your manager. Then it is easier for him/her to meet your needs (perhaps it is not your assignment that needs to change at all). Expressing your needs is also a great way of creating a trustful relationship with managers and colleagues. Reflection questions Write down individually or discuss with your team mates Think of a recent time when you felt really motivated at work. What was it you had done that made you feel motivated? Write/discuss in terms of behaviours. Of all the things you wrote down in the previous question, what are motivators and what are hygiene factors? Write down all your motivator you can think of in your role at IKEA. How often do you actually have them in your everyday life? What can you do in order to have motivators more often? Other reflections? LEARN MORE If you would like to find other Learning Activities that will help you become more self-aware and increase your self-leadership, visit our Leadership Home on IKEA Inside and search for Learning Activities. Please note that all material in our Leadership Home is in English. If you want to do translated Learning Activities, ask your manager.

6 page 6 Sources: Deci, Edward L. and Ryan, Richard M., Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Andersson, Leif E. and Klintrot, Mira (2013) OBM Ledarskapets psykologi. Herzberg, Frederick (1993) Motivation to work.