They're both a new accessory in office decor and an attempt to enhance corporate culture. Either way, motivational posters are finding their way onto workplace walls. And most of the managers who put them there hope the posters will create a pleasant atmosphere, change employees' behavior, and ultimately boost productivity.
But do these posters really motivate? If they're perceived as a flavor-of-the-month management tactic, employees may scoff, warns Samuel Culbert, Ph.D., professor of management at UCLA. "Unless they're depressed, people are already motivated to succeed," Culbert notes. "Managers should be trying to remove obstacles to productivity, and they need to ask their people how to do this. By putting up these signs, managers are showing that they don't care about the answers."
