Empirical findings
“Motivation is much about belief – the right belief can move mountains” (Johan Staël von Holstein) In fact, he proclaims with a smile: “… it’s not that damn hard, but managers make it hard”. You just have to have true faith in people, and they have to experience a positive selfconceptualisation, and that is what motivation in the whole is all about. “If you only get enough time and sufficient amount of information, it is more or less possible for anyone to accomplish anything”. Bengt Johansson agrees, and says it is important to recognize the individual, give him/her a role, and a chance to be a leader and to develop personally. Not everyone succeeds in this thought, but at least the leader has given him/her the chance to test the boundaries and grow, he explains. Personal development is important in the business context, Johan Staël von Holstein says, and this is exactly what Bengt Johansson claims, as he means that a leader must encourage subordinates to unveil all potential embraced within them. Johan Staël von Holstein sometimes lacks this sense of belief in employees in today’s leaders, and he think that this lack might be why it fairly often is possible to observe deficient motivation among employees he says. As said by Sven-Göran Eriksson, athletes most often have a build in motivation. He describes the willpower he sees in his football players to go out and win a match in the presence of 80 000 spectators, the desire to accomplish well in a World Championship when you know that millions of people are watching you. This is also why Bengt Johansson put enormous amount of energy in creating and sustaining enthusiasm for the game, simply because you are not able to achieve high goals if motivation is absent. Motivation in both real life and in our professional life, Ingvar Kamprad elucidates, is comprised by a profound need of feeling wanted and important. I am strongly convinced, Ingvar Kamprad continues, that every single employee inside IKEA is vital to the contribution of our business advancements and hence, every single employee is important. That is why motivation is so crucial, you have to deliver this feeling and understanding of importance and senses of meaningfulness to them, otherwise work will solely be means of livelihood. “The strong motivation found within our organization is much due to the shared philanthropic view we have”. An often-used key word in IKEA is “Together”, and that is the jargon people are surrounded with. Ingvar Kamprad gently explains how his view of leading, is all about equality and cooperation. After all he says, “we are all just humans”. The obliging entrepreneur from Småland continues and recaptures:
“Almost every time I pay a visit to one of our department stores I start off by wandering down to the warehouses and shake hands with the boys and girls working there. Partly because it is often early and the store managers have not yet arrived and started to work, but mainly because these people on the ‘floor’ teach me so much about how things actually work in reality. They are important” (Ingvar Kamprad) Jan Wallander harmonize with the earlier respondents, but further adds that the fundament of any leadership, within sports as well as commerce, is to create the right circumstances so
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