Reduced worker motivation: a side effect?

Pa Riad Zigar – The worker, regardless of his position in the organization, whether management or gatekeeping, his behavior at work has an impact on the entire system inside and outside the company, administrative unit or any other organization. “Butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could set off a tornado in Texas” Applies to human behavior. In fact, the most important thing in human life is interaction with other people. Let’s imagine a front desk employee in direct contact with a citizen who comes to request a service. The employee responds to the request very quickly. As a result, it saves time, reduces waiting time and the length of queues for citizens who come to enjoy the same service. Through a trickle-down effect, the information about the efficiency of this employee spreads and, in turn, spreads to the efficiency of the institution. In the case of the company, it is easy to imagine the impact on its image, especially since the behavior of such a citizen is not the exception, but the rule. Because there is a management model upstream that motivates it.

Let’s imagine the opposite situation: the employee delays in providing the service, he looks for excuses to leave his position, he is absent from work several times, sometimes claiming a computer network crash or without any excuse, ignoring those who impatiently get stuck in a queue that moves at a snail’s pace. Then the meeting ends, the office / counter closes, the queue disperses, with some negative effects: the citizen / customer will be forced to return another day. As a result, people lose working time in travel and waiting, the impact on traffic, traffic jams and the pollution and fuel consumption they cause, the psychological impact of all these frustrations, and the global impact on the GDP of countries due to the poor performance of institutions and businesses, which is exacerbated by the low motivation of workers.

The Gallup Institute regularly conducts surveys around the world on work life, especially work engagement. “Engaged” They give their best and are satisfied with their work. “Not Committed” is performed out of obligation, and “Non-commitment initiative” Not only do they lack motivation, but they also propagate and adopt behaviors that go against the goals of their institutions/companies. The latest Gallup publication reveals the correlation between executive engagement and the engagement of their employees. Unfortunately, Tunisia is not at the top in terms of regional and national rankings, and we all know that. On the other hand, less known are Tunisia’s successful experiences that promote motivation and collective commitment of the human capital of institutions, companies or civil society organizations, thereby improving their performance.

Practices that favor commitment and performance are undoubtedly adapted to the context at different levels: cultural, sectoral, political and geopolitical. For example, geopolitics intervenes strongly in the IT industry. The huge international demand for experts in this field acts like a pump, draining the skills of young Tunisians in search of new experiences and not just better income. Companies operating in our country are obliged to respond in order to retain their executives and other employees. Solutions currently implemented include work-study programs for master’s students and joint mentoring of doctoral students by academics and corporate executives. Therefore, in order to ensure the supply of both stable and trained human capital adapted to their activities, companies invest in the training of both those who will be recruited and another part of the workforce that will leave elsewhere.

Regarding cultural factors, we must distinguish between the culture that exists in an administrative body, a company or other organization and the culture that exists in society. Every person belonging to a society is “programmed” in some way by the education he receives, which consists of beliefs, values, attitudes towards relations with others and work…

Many studies have shown the influence of culture on workplace behavior. The Tunisian work reveals the importance of respect for dignity in relationships with leaders. This respect also involves the recognition of the competence of employees. Thus, the Tunisian cultural context favors exchanges between executives and various collaborators and allows them to benefit from the collective wisdom they generate. The exchange is a slight participation in decision-making, the result of which is the formation of a sense of belonging to the organization, which is conducive to well-being and commitment to work. However, this is not the prevailing model of human resource management in the country. Instead, it is a bureaucratic model based on a deterministic belief in the rules set by the top. The error of this belief has been demonstrated by several works, including that of Michel Crozier. The latter reveals, on the one hand, the dangers of centralization and a multitude of rules, and, on the other hand, that individual freedom always has a place, no matter what kind of authoritarian system.⁽¹⁾In the Tunisian context, what I refer to in my work as “organizational ambiguity” makes the rules vague and thus weakens their referential value.⁽²⁾This ambiguity means that the interpretation of the rules varies depending on the context and the dominant power, which may exist elsewhere than at the top of the hierarchy. The culture of an organization (institution or company) is revealed through the narrative that dominates social relations. This is a narrative that may or may not be conducive to engagement at work, and it may be:

“This is our government, we serve the country and the citizens” or “This is our institution, we have to protect it” or “We serve them with their money”.

Indeed, HRM theories go a long way in understanding the drivers of worker behavior. Even if some theories have become outdated due to the profound changes that have taken place since their development, consultants still use them as their main reference. On the other hand, the successful experiences of Tunisian management are little known, both because few managers write papers and because few professional conference proceedings are published that bring together practitioners and academics, whose work methodically examines the realities on the ground. Management information is rarely disseminated in a language that everyone can understand… When studies have been conducted and have resulted in proposals and recommendations for action, they often have no follow-up and are forgotten on archive shelves.

Interests: Zgar

(1) Michel Crozier (1963), The Bureaucratic Phenomenon, Key Points
Crozier, Michelle and Friedberg, Erhard (2007). Actors and Systems. Seuil, London:

(2) Riadh Zghal (2008), “Management, culture and other determinants. The case of Tunisia”, in E. Davel, JP Dupuis, JF Chanlat Management in a cross-cultural context. Methods, issues, practice and dives, PUL TELUQ