Effective Staff Motivation Strategies in Leisure Service Organisations

The phrase ‘the stick or the carrot’ can be seen to represent two types of motivators, the stick being threat of punishment and the carrot being a style of reward (Gӓchter, 2012). Both forms of motivators are present in different types of management styles; punishment is most common in a traditional management approach, while reward schemes are more apparent in contemporary approaches which embrace a greater focus on human relations. The aim of this essay is to discuss and critically analyse what the key is to effective staff motivation strategies in leisure service organisations. There is high importance on determining how to generate successful staff motivation; according to Mullins (2010) the employees, in any organisation, are the most

Due to these characteristics and the reluctance to work, in order to complete organisational aims it is perceived that Theory X people need to be controlled, directed and threatened through means of punishment to attain an adequate amount of effort from them (Adair, 2009). The fear of punishment, a representation of the ‘stick’, is a type of extrinsic motivation (Sansone and Harackiewicz, 2000). Therefore, in the case of the assumptions of McGregor’s Theory X individual is could be argued that ‘the stick’ may be the key to successful staff

However, no one individual can motivate another; they can only influence what the individual is motivated to do (Bruce and Pepitone, 1999). This theory combined with the fifty-fifty rule suggests that an individual’s motivation can be, to some extent, influenced by a leader or manager, if the right environment is created. The question that could consequently be raised is, if only fifty per cent of an individual’s motivation can be influenced by external factors, is threat of punishment actually that successful in raising employee efforts and could there be any other effective ways of motivating staff? If a Theory X individual dislikes work, then extrinsic offers for example fringe benefits such as paid holiday, group health insurance and dental plans, could be effective motivators. In current days, it is frequently seen that companies provide health coverage, including disability and life insurance, to employees and their families, which increases the feeling of long-term safety and security, and aids trust and loyalty between employees and the company (Bowen and Sadri, 2011). The receiving of fringe benefits can also result in employees enhancing their morale and improving their work ethics due to the fact they have an increased perception of their companies being good and fair employers