management by objectives
Does Management By Objectives motivate employees? ... SPRING SEMESTER 2002 Although management literature is filled with panaceas, new ideas and new, crucial methods, nothing is more important for a company than to have an effective and efficient management process, because without an effective and efficient management process it is not possible to effectively put the resources to good, profitable usage. For this reason there was a need for Management By Objectives (MBO) to come about in the 1950s. Management by objectives is a “key motivation technique” in which both managers and employees cooperate in order to set a company’s goals within time-specific borders. An important question is how hard the objectives should be to meet. ... Many management experts feel they should be about 50 percent attainable. ... What is needed is that the management process is based on a set of agreed-upon rules, values and morals in addition to MBO.( Peter Drucker) Management provides specific performance goals for each employee and its position within the organization. MBO is closely identified with Peter Drucker who popularized it in his 1954 book The Practice of Management. The worker participates with management in setting his or her own objectives, which need to be specific and measurable within a set time frame. ... Many organizations that have implemented management by objectives have assumed that achievement of objectives is motivating for the employee. I believe that management by objectives is not a motivator unless it is linked to a reward system. ... If achievement is one of those needs, the employee may be motivated by his own sense of achievement, but if his sense of achievement depends on confirmation by the rewards he receives for meeting objectives, then he will need the rewards, both as a confirmation and as a device to measure how well he has achieved. ... However, if he is told to do something, set dates for reaching objectives, and he does what he was "supposed to do" in a timely fashion, then unless he is rewarded, there is no inherent motivation in reaching the goal.