Boo! Did I scare you? Do your supervisors scare you?

Wonder if they are doing it on purpose?

What motives people and how employers motivate employees can range as dramatically as colors in a rainbow. Each person responds in a different way. Although most can be grouped into commonly recognized motivation theories such as, achievement, affiliation, competence, power, attitude, incentive and fear.

Welbourne (1995) provides and in depth review of how fear can be effectively used as a motivator. When preparing to read this article, I expected to not be supportive of this theory. Surprisingly, the article nicely explained how the use of fear with information on how to cope with the fear. In my view, this means details.

Welbourne references in her article Schein (1993) who commented that anxiety (fear) is needed for change to occur but that is must not be so great to cause paralysis. Schein concluded that to successfully communicate change it is necessary to balance negative and positive information.

The National Registry recently underwent a dramatic change in operations – changing from a paper driven certification exam to a computer based exam. The concept was met with great enthusiasm but the reality brought fear – what would happen to the paper-driven job duties performed by many staff members? Watching the management styles of the department directors was an interesting human behavior lab. They each approached motivating their staff different, while still using the underlying fear to motivate staff to be creative in ways they approached the changes and made recommendations. Some methods were successful, some not so successful. Reflecting this transition in reference to the various motivation theories helps explain the results I witnessed.

Overall, I think motivation is personal. Why are people doing what they do? Do we every really know all the experiences that may have impacted them prior to their current position? I think effective managers learn to use a blend of the commonly identified motivational theories throughout their careers, continuing to learn as they grow too (and also impacted by their current motivations). To be a successful leader, I hope to use my experiences and knowledge to select the best motivational theory for the task and staff I lead at the time. Maybe someday I will be using fear to effectively motivate my staff. I hope I’m not too scary.


Welbourne, T. (1995, March). Fear: The Misunderstood Component of Organizational Transformation. Human Resource Planning, 18(1), 30-37. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from Business Source Complete database.