Motivational communication constitutes an extremely important facet of in-house communication in large organizations. Service organizations in particular are highly people intensive. People within are the major stakeholders in such organizations.
It is their morale and motivation that determines the organization’s customer and business orientation. Behavioural psychologists have inferred that morale in an organization is at its best when individual goals converge towards organizational goals.
Employees of progressive organizations exhibit a high degree of identity with the organization. All this underscores the need for effective in-house communication through various methods, including motivational circulars.
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Motivational circulars constitute one of the means by which motivation levels are influenced within the organization. They are an important adjunct to various HRD initiatives that are taken in an organization to bring about and sustain high levels of employee motivation at all levels. To be effective, motivational communication should meet certain requisites.
First, such communication should be addressed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or president or general manager or any functionary who is quite senior and commands high regard within the organization.
Depending upon the contents and the occasion, such communications are addressed by different top-level functionaries. Communication from the chief executive carries tremendous value and creates a distinct impact on people at all levels.
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Second, due importance should be given to designing, drafting and distributing such communication. The language of the communication, the personal touch, the quality of paper and the physical appeal, besides the substance of the communication, need particular attention.
The employees to whom it is addressed should feel the importance the signatory has attached to the letter. Indifferently drafted letters can hardly be effective in motivating people. Motivation broadly refers to inducing a person to act in a certain positive manner.
In order to be effective, any such motivational communication should carry a certain impelling power. The words chosen should carry the required weight and force. Third, motivation, it should be noted, is the opposite of manipulation. It should carry authentic facts mid figures and appeal to reason.
There should be an honest attempt to share relevant information. Motivational communication should exhibit a high degree of transparency and sincerity. Fourth, to the extent possible, motivational communication should be addressed directly by name.
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However, when the number of employees is very large, and the cost and effort in addressing individual letters is going to be high, such communication may be addressed as ‘Dear Colleagues’ and sent to the branch head or unit head, with a request to circulate the communication amongst all the staff members in an appropriate forum, such as a staff meeting.
The nature, variety and frequency of motivational communication also call for a conscious judgement keeping in view the organizational climate. While every opportunity is to be taken to share the information and relate developments of interest to the people within, overdoing it would rob the communication of its distinctiveness. Since most of the motivational communication is also top management communication, certain relevant aspects covered in the next section will have to be reckoned with.
The physiological needs such as food and shelter have to be satisfied before a person moves on to safety needs. The lower order needs have to be satisfied, substantially at least, before moving on to higher order needs in the hierarchy.
When we talk of motivation in an organization, we have to cover needs such as love, affection and sense of belonging, esteem needs such as self-fulfilment. People associated with the task of bringing out motivational communication will have a vast area of human interest from which they can draw relevant ideas.
There is, indeed, considerable scope for covering a wide range of personality development and other aspects of human and organizational dynamics. Charts, pictures, examples, illustrations, stories and quotations are additional aids which come in handy in drafting motivational communication. This is an area where people with good communication skills can strive to excel.