#1: Are Motivation and “YARUKI” (やる気) the Same Thing?

October 28th, 2022 [No. 102 – 2022]

Norihiko Takeuchi
Professor,
Graduate School of Business and Finance, 
Waseda University, Japan

Organizational Turnaround with a Focus on Employee Motivation: A Japanese Case
#1: Are Motivation and “YARUKI” (やる気) the Same Thing?

1. Introduction

2. Misconceptions about Motivation

3. Summary

1. Introduction
The social and economic environment has changed rapidly over the past several years, forcing companies to adapt to the many changes required within their organizations. New digital transformations associated with rapid digitization have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Process improvement within organizations is being sought to a greater extent than ever before due to the global price hikes, driven as much by geopolitical risks symbolized by the Ukrainian crisis. In these times of uncertainty and difficulty in predicting the future, the profitability of businesses is always at risk of fluctuation. At the same time, organizations should incorporate the ability to constantly change and renew themselves in the face of a dynamic external environment.

With these issues in mind, a series of four consecutive articles, beginning with this one, will examine organizational turnaround strategies that originate from “people,” based on a case study and some theories. In particular, I believe that a key role in organizational turnaround lies in whether an organization succeeds in managing “employee motivation.” Therefore, in this first installment of a series of articles, I shall look at what motivation actually means.

2. Misconceptions about Motivation
To begin with, what exactly is "motivation"? In our busy daily work lives, we may not often reflect on such a question. However, when you think about it in detail, you may be surprised to find that what has been practiced as a matter of course to motivate employees may not always be effective. You may also discover that there are many familiar tips and ideas for increasing motivation that you have not yet put into practice.

What do you think is motivation? Many people in the business world may think that it is “YARUKI (やる気)” or “IYOKU (意欲),” both of which refer to one’s willingness or desire to do something. For example, employees with a strong willingness or desire to work hard are typically regarded as highly motivated talents. Is this really the case? 

Let me tell you a story about a long-established onsen ryokan (Japanese inn). The ryokan was heavily in debt, and the management of the ryokan was handed over to another business owner. Gone were the days of the inn’s bustling and busy atmosphere that used to attract many guests, and the place now looked so quiet and deserted. The inn had about 60 employees, all of whom were frustrated with the situation. They wanted to provide their guests with services that would make them happy, but they could not. With the number of guests dwindling, they did not know how to make their customers happy. Although the employees gathered for meetings to improve the ryokan’s service, the discussions were not very constructive and sometimes came to a deadlock due to conflicting opinions, resulting in a series of empty discussions. Everyone was keenly aware that they wanted to please their customers and make the ryokan the customers' choice, but what should they do about it? ......

Now, can such a situation be considered a situation where employees were highly motivated? Certainly, each and every one of them in the ryokan had a strong sense of wanting to change the status quo somehow, oriented towards serving the customers. If motivation were synonymous with “YARUKI” or “IYOKU,” this situation would be considered highly motivated.

Psychology, as an academic science, however, generally does not consider this situation to be a highly motivated state. In psychology, motivation is viewed as a concept that encompasses the following three key elements: NEEDs, DRIVE, and BEHAVIOR. It is then viewed as a continuous process by which an individual’s certain “needs” lead to specific “behaviors.” In other words, the specific desire to do is accompanied by the “behavioral choice of what to do” (this is called “drive” in psychology). It is believed that a highly motivated state is formed only when the selected behavior is “actually done.”

Therefore, in the example of the ryokan mentioned earlier, if individual employees have the “willingness” and “desire” to reform their organization and services to make customers happy, but are unable to take any actual action, they are not necessarily in a highly motivated state. In other words, “willingness” and “desire” are only a temporal indication of one’s need strength, and it is only when these are converted into concrete actions and sustained that a state of high motivation is created.

3. Summary
In sum, motivation is the internal process by which a person’s desire (to do something) leads to actual action through activating one’s drive (the behavioral choice of what to do). Highly motivated people manage this series of processes well and take solid action. The example of the ryokan I introduced here is not a unique case; it is very common in the companies and workplaces where we work. It would be premature to assume that organizational turnaround is easily achieved by a group of ambitious people. So why do people often have a strong desire but fail to act on it? In the next issue, I will introduce a case of organizational turnaround that focused on employee motivation.