Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
In today's globally competitive corporate environment, effective employee motivation is essential to the success of any organization. The classical perspective of management was essentially analytical and rational, and employee's emotions were not considered. Nonetheless, it is crucial for organizations to recognize that employee motivation goes beyond the usual monetary reward systems for a multigenerational workforce. In motivating today's human capital, organizations have to engage their minds and captivate their hearts, which can be achieved by incorporating social and emotional intelligence. Social and emotional intelligence equip managers with skills to turn challenges of generational differences into positives. These skills assist managers attend to individual employee needs irrespective of their generation. Socially and emotionally intelligent managers enable their organizations to offer an environment that motivates and develops employees despite the generational differences in the workplace. This study discusses the implications of emotional and social intelligences by outlining how these skills can enable organization to cultivate cultures that enhance employee motivation.
Keywords: Employee Motivation, Multigenerational Workplace, Social Intelligence, Emotional intelligence, Generational Differences
1.0 Introduction
In the current global economy, companies are striving to survive in a highly competitive environment. An organization may have managers endowed with a myriad of impressive technical skills and extensive educations. But, can they effectively relate to the employees and other managers? Can they motivate the employees to be productive? Presently, employee retention challenges are common to managers regardless of the company's size, technology and market focus (Manzoor, 2011). One outstanding challenge is the management of a workforce that has notable variations in perspective and goals due to generational differences (Glass, 2007). These differences must be addressed in an effort to recruit, retain and motivate the best talent in an organization.
A multigenerational workforce is essential to the growth of an organization. The benefits of working in a multigenerational workplace surpass the challenges involved (Hughes, 2011). But the big question remains, how to keep employees motivated in a multigenerational workplace. The answer to this question is as diverse as the workforce itself. Organizations need to find ways to retain and make the most of their talent. Additionally, they need to find ways to meet the challenges of a fast-evolving multigenerational workforce (Gladwell & Dorwart et al., 2010).
In today's globally competitive business...