The Most Effective Motivational Scheme - Research Paper Example

? Research Reflection of the Contents Introduction 3 Experience 3 Reflection 4 Application 5 Planning 6 References 8 Introduction I will be conducting a research on the most effective motivational scheme. The research will be based on my studies and experience during my 22 months tenure in Christian university. I have been exposed to many motivational schemes and I will be finding out what motivational scheme will work best for the current business of my father. I will be conducting research to see what best motivational scheme my father and I could use in our appliance repair business. I will be passing out a survey to my father’s employees. This survey will contain questionnaire about few motivational behaviors which we can implement in our business. Through this survey, we are hopeful of finding out the perception of our employees and also their present motivation and interest level. It is important that we find out which motivational scheme is most important, in order to keep our employees happy. Since it is a small business, the greatest fear is high attrition rate and skilled employees leaving the business. To get into the appliance repair business one does not need much capital therefore it is important that we keep our employees happy with the right motivational scheme. That way they will not leave us to start their own business. Experience A cohort can be termed as a group of people sharing similar characteristics. These characteristics can be age, date of birth, place of origin, place of study. A cohort group can also be formed by people, who are subjected to similar kind of situations such as undergoing a particular medical procedure etc (Fein, Tziner & Vasiliu, 2010). A cohort study is also known as longitudinal study in which the cohort group is studied with respect to a general population (Catlin and Maupin, 2004). I was exposed to a similar situation when I attended Christian university, for a period of 22 months and went through 11 classes each seven weeks long. I was studying with a cohort group with similar people. This group was similar in terms of age group, knowledge level, education inheriting from the same university. It was natural that the way of understanding the knowledge and interpreting them, was very much similar, as taught by our lecturers. I have had varying experiences during my study tenure in the cohort group. Few days after the classes started in full swing, we started losing our students. Few students dropped out and few were called off by their parents because of personal reasons. Even though most of the participants were of similar age, we had an old lady. The study materials we had been very helpful and lecturers helped us during the research. There were few misunderstandings and quarrels too. Few of the participants of the cohort were not in line with the techniques used by the rest of the cohort during the tenure. But these issues were resolved at the end with proper understanding and some compromises from both the groups. Being in a cohort with the same group of students is quite an experience. The norming and forming is constant. It is also good to know that every time we have to present it is in front of people you know and acquainted with. It helps to boost experience and better results are generated. Reflection The basic concept which I understood is that group or team dynamics is a system of psychological and behavioral process which occurs within a social group. It can also be termed as intra group dynamics which means actions and their subsequent reactions and consequences occurring within a group. From the classes which I attended on this particular topic, I was able to understand that group dynamics is done with the objective of understanding behaviors such as decision making, creating and implementing new techniques and ideas, making new ideas viable in the society and making them useful for the current as well as future generation. Since there were only two classes on the topic of group and team dynamics, the classes were not able to prepare me fully for the cohort experience. But the few things which I extracted from the classes helped me during the rest of my cohort experience in the university. There were many things which I leaned and experiences which I believe will help me immensely in my future professional life. The individuals participating in a group dynamics process go through four developmental phases. The first one is forming where the team members introduce themselves to others and know about others in the group. In our cohort group, we also had a similar experience and I learnt that ice-breaking or knowing individuals is the first step in building a strong group. The next developmental process is storming in which a leader emerges and resistance to leader is formed. There is also emotional resistance because of the demands which are placed on other individuals. This process can hamper the team dynamics in a negative way and the leader should communicate properly (Cavalcante, Kesting & Ulhoi, 2011). During my cohort experience, I was the team leader and had difficulty in managing other individuals as they were not agreeing to my ideas and suggestion. Then with proper communication I was able to stabilize the team and get support from other individuals from the group. I understood that it is very important to maintain good relationships and confidence among group member in order to form a dynamic group and produce excellent ideas. Application From my experience in the cohort group I found out that group dynamics is very essential for building a successful team. For the long term growth of any organization, it is very important that the teams working in the organizations are working together and generating positive ideas. Teamwork is essential for any group and leaning within the team is a never ending process. My cohort experience has led me to realize many things. In terms of long term group behavior, I have learned many things which are absolute essential. The first one is ice breaking. The sooner we understand each other in a group, the easier and quicker it becomes to work together. Knowing each other is essential as it helps the team members to understand the strengths, weaknesses, priorities of other individuals in the group (Osajima, Sternquist & Manjeshwar, 2010). This knowledge is very helpful in long term bonding of the group. Throughout the time in the cohort, I have sat next to the same people and have been always paired with the same people. This was a good experience as this helped me in increasing my bonding with the rest of my team members and ultimately our results were positive and becoming better every passing day. I would like to follow this principle in future while working in a group as well, when I am handling teams in future. Loyalty for any group is very important. Once we were acquainted with a group, the group is more than just a professional team. Spending time in a group makes us share professional as well as personal relationship with the cohort group. Thus maintaining loyalty in a group is absolute important for high group dynamics. One thing that shouldn't change is my loyalty for any group I join as according to my experience and knowledge, it is one of the important factors resulting in mutual cooperation, understanding and resultant achievement in the work. Planning Establishing a group is a dynamic function of any organization. According to my understanding of the whole process, it is very important to make a smooth group flow in order to run the business. Human resources are one of the most critical resources of a business. They become all the more important if it a service oriented business or a business which needs expertise and right skills for its successful daily operation. Thus, maintaining group dynamics is essential for business. From my experience in the cohort group, I realized that there are many changes which I need to make in order to make our business better. The most important was the first step of group dynamics. To get the desired results, I will start having more conversations with my team members and employees in my business. I will try to mingle with them and leave a positive impact on them, so that they also open up in a positive manner. I will get to know them personally. I will open up time in the beginning of group for everyone to get to know each other. As a whole this paper helped me to understand research and also ascertain which method is best for my father’s business. From my experience I understood that for the proper functioning of the business, I need to maintain a high group dynamics in order to boost up the motivation of our employees (Courtney, Navarro & O'Hare, 2007). Building personal relationship will help in establishing a bond and thus help the employees will perform their work efficiently and in a more confident manner. This will ensure sustainability of my father’s business. References Catlin, D.W. & Maupin, J. R. (2004). A two cohort study of the ethical orientations of state police officers. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 27(3), 289 – 301 Cavalcante, S., Kesting, P. & Ulhoi, J. (2011). Business model dynamics and innovation: (re)establishing the missing linkages. Management Decision, 49(8), 1327 - 1342. Courtney, H. S., Navarro, E. & O'Hare, C. A. (2007). The Dynamic Organic Transformational (D.O.T.) team model for high-performance knowledge-worker teams. Team Performance Management, 13(1), 34 – 46. Fein, E. C., Tziner, A. & Vasiliu, C. (2010). Age cohort effects, gender, and Romanian leadership preferences. Journal of Management Development, 29(4), 364 – 376. Osajima, K., Sternquist, B. & Manjeshwar, S. (2010). Japanese materialism: A comparison between the new breed and second baby-boomer age-cohorts. Journal of Asia Business Studies, 4(2), 57 – 72. Read More