Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation - Assignment Example

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Introduction Organizational behavior has been defined by eminent authors such as Baack (2012) as study of behavior of employees in organizational context. Numerous business models and cases have been developed on organizational behavior so as to determine methods of motivation, job satisfaction, encouraging leadership, innovation and enhancing job performance within a company (Adler & Gundersen, 2007). This paper is a critical analysis of organizational behavior in my present organization with respect to dimensions such as culture, communication mode, nature of authority, motivational techniques, emotional quotient and scope for virtual organization. I have discussed the positive and/or negative impact of the above mentioned dimensions on organizational behavior of my present employer. Organizational culture A number of scholarly articles emphasize that organization culture bears stark resemblance with national culture as it comprises elements of shared assumption that have been developed by a specific group of individuals or a team so that members of the organization learn problem solving tactics by means of internal integration and external adaptation. All these elements are significantly responsible for creating unique organizational culture. However, organizational culture can be broadly sorted as pluralism, dualism and salad bowl culture. In the following section, the three types of organizational culture have been briefly discussed followed by organizational example in context of my present employer (Martins & Terblanche, 2003). Pluralism organizational culture explains that in an organizational set-up individual belonging to different cultures can co-exist and conduct interaction with each other while maintaining a certain degree of tolerance towards each other. Cultural pluralism can be noticed largely in an individual’s surrounding; for instance, acceptance of Chinese calligraphy in the United States (Martins & Terblanche, 2003). From organizational perspective, cultural pluralism is experienced when a parent company has multiple strategic business units (SBUs) in different locations (within a country or outside). Cultural dualism is referred to existence of two kinds of culture within an organization. Cultural dualism can be considered as a narrower translation of pluralism. A number of organizations that operated in only two countries, home and host countries, expected to exhibit cultural dualism. In this regard, salad bowl is a relatively broad concept as it integrates and accommodates multiple cultures and the organization is treated as a cultural melting pot. The primary difference between cultural pluralism and salad bowl culture is that in pluralism, the cultural of sub-groups remain intact while in salad bowl, all the cultures are merged together (Sinclair, 1993; Willcoxson & Millett, 2000). I presently work in an US-based multinational that has operations in Asian and European countries. The company is renowned for its rich organizational culture which is reflected in terms of workplace satisfaction and loyalty among the firm’s employees. The existing organizational culture bears high level of resemblance with the salad bowl cultural concept. As a result, strong level of employee empowerment, acculturation and equality is dispersed in the firm. The management of the company is not partial and ensures that organizational benefits are delivered on the basis of employees’ merit and performance. Owing to the openness of work culture in the company, every employee is provided equal job opportunity and scope for growth and excellence. The employee turnover rate in the organization is very low as the company make considerable amount of effort towards human resource management. The efforts comprise open communication, flat hierarchy, minimal ranking process and informal and helpful environment. Even though the process of maintaining salad bowl culture with organizational framework is difficult and minor incidents such as disagreement occurs occasionally, the company has been successful in management of organizational elements and earning profit. The company put considerable emphasis on employees as its critical asset and source of success. Intra-organizational trust is essential for inculcation of strong organizational values and culture. Cultural aspects and values are developed among employees by means of team efforts and group tasks. The organizational values have brought in a sense loyalty, determination and hard work among its employees and consequently, employees work towards the common objectives with greater enthusiasm keeping aside their personal competition. Communication Organizational communication plays an important role in managing clarity and openness within the organization. Communication is vital for ensuring stability in organizational culture and structure and thereby it makes significant contribution towards organizational behavior. Communication within an organization can be either verbal or non-verbal (written) in nature. Each of these kinds has its own merits and demerits and none of these are alone sufficient for organizational management (Peng & Litteljohn, 2001). My company is considered ideal from the perspective of effectiveness of its communication methods. Physical and semantic barriers in the communication is not encouraged in the firm and as a result, managers as well as employees are allocated semi-closed cubicles as their work stations while closed rooms are used only for conferences and meetings. The work culture of the firm permits employees to enjoy benefits of two way communication. Employees are generally delegated instructions by means of informal and verbal communication. The formal communication tools such as email, memo and forms are used for interaction with clients and other departments. The management keeps a formal record of all instruction so that data and information loss is prevented. Intra-department communication is encouraged significantly within the firm by means of group projects and team work. Another important feature of open communication within the firm is equipping employees with decision making power. Such measures are undertaken to foster trust and confidence among employees. Nature of authority According to Etzioni (1959), organizations have been developed on the notion that it represents coordinated human endeavors for realization of specific goals. The author appended that the extent of goal realization depends significantly on the nature of authority structure within the firm. Unless the authority structure is compatible with firm’s goals, complete achievement of the same is not possible (Etzioni, 1959). Additionally, Kyng & Mathiassen (1997) added that nature of authority should be aligned to the structure of the company for achieving optimum outcome. This notion is embedded in the organizational structure of my firm. The company has flat hierarchy and its authority structure has been aligned in such a manner that it complements the hierarchy. Within the firm, employees are motivated by means of empowerment. Thereby, employees are provided with greater decision making authority. It was determined that authoritative power motivates employees and make them take up challenging roles. Employee empowerment delivers greater scope for learning and personal development for the employees (Etzioni, 1959). The authority structure within the firm implies that it is important to build trust among employees towards the firm so that they are naturally motivated. The authority structure in the company provides employees sufficient scope for personal as well as organizational development. Additionally, sense of empowerment also inculcates leadership skills among employees. It was further determined in the organization that relaxed authoritative structure makes employees feel most associated with the organization and as a result, they make personal effort towards gaining organizational objectives. Motivational techniques Employee motivation is considered as one of the essential aspects of performance management and one of the complex issues in organizational management as same thing may or may not motivate two different individuals. Within an organizational framework, external motivation is not sufficient; instead, managers should make effort towards nurturing the natural motivation that employee bring into the organization. Hence, strengthening existing motivation is also essential for managers. Motivation can be of two kinds, intrinsic and extrinsic. These two kinds of motivational factors are highly related to Herzberg’s two factor theory. Intrinsic motivational factors comprise challenging job assignments, team management and appreciation while extrinsic motivation emphasize on monetary and non-monetary rewards, promotion opportunity and various fringe benefits (Benabou & Tirole, 2003). The firm respects and admires loyal and self-motivated individuals as they make significant contribution to organizational growth through their long-term experience in the firm. It has already been discussed that the employee in the company is very less and reason is attributed to job satisfaction and contentment with the organization. The firm makes significant efforts towards developing suitable work environment for employee belonging to different background and culture. A number of motivational measures have been embedded in the organizational culture of the firm. Extrinsic motivational factors thereof comprise various fringe benefits and monetary rewards. Employees have positive feeling regarding their association with the firm as the company provides a number of benefits to the employees and often these benefits are extended to family members as well. Intrinsic motivation plays equally crucial role in delivering productivity and performance. The sources of intrinsic motivation in the firm are opportunities for promotion and internal recruitment, recognition and reward, responsibility and authority. Area of emotion quotient embraced by the firm Increasing utilization of emotional intelligence for enhancing organizational performance can be observed among present-day managers and leaders. Besides psychology, emotional intelligence or quotient is gaining importance in organizational behavior. Firms are gradually realizing its role in coordinating, managing and facilitating workplace behavior (Cherniss, 2010). In this regard, academic research also support that emotional quotient is essential for facilitating leadership efficiency. The researchers also appended on the basis of evidence that emotional intelligence strengthen social environment within an organization and thereby support improvement in productivity. Emotional quotient was introduced about two decade back and ever since its definition has been improvised several times with respect to organizations, leaders and management (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995). The scope of implementation of emotional quotient is high and has been well-recognized by managers and leaders owing to the flat organizational hierarchy, salad bowl culture and informal communication in my firm. It was observed that high degree of emotional quotient in managers in the firm has resulted in increased level of technical and managerial skill causing them better management of organizational problem and tensions and team and personal interest conflicts. In the firm, the empathetic nature of managers helps in building trust and confidence among employees and between employees and management resulting to high degree of job satisfaction and productivity. In the firm, integration of emotional quotient has resulted in greater interpersonal relationship and agreeability within the firm. Virtual organization According to the Economist (2009), the future of all business organizations is going to be ‘virtual’ considering increasing scarcity of resources and demand for sustainability. However, there is no precise definition of virtual organization as the variety in structure of the same is infinite and all of them are dynamic and highly fluid in nature. The primary aspect of virtual organization is very limited physical assets and strong reliance on networking. A virtual office is defined by negligible restrictions and physical barriers. However, in virtual organizations the job responsibility on employees is very high; hence employees need to be highly motivated and loyal towards the organization (The Economist, 2009). The organization I am currently associated with is not a completely virtual organization but there are provisions of working virtually. In the firm, employees can avail facilities such as work-from-home as and when they face difficulty reaching the physical office. The firm has incorporated advanced technologies and strong networking systems so that employees can operate virtually through cloud computing and pursue various official activities such as meetings and conferences online. Maximum utilization of internet is encouraged among employees so that they can access the cloud from any location and do their work. For critical assignments, the company also assigns virtual teams comprising members from different geographical location. It has been observed that the virtual aspect imparts greater flexibility among employees and scope of interaction with employees at other locations. Conclusion The paper discusses different aspects of organizational behavior and draws on their impact on overall organizational structure of a firm. In this regard, examples from my current organization have been provided in the paper. The aspects that were taken in consideration are cultural layout of the organization, communication mode, nature of authority structure, motivational techniques and virtual organization. Overall analysis revealed that the organization has flexible and fluid-like structure and an equally complementing authority structure. The communication modes of the firm are highly flexible and along with appropriate implementation of emotional intelligent, the firm has been successful in maximum utilization of its resources towards productivity and performance. References Adler, N. J. & Gundersen, A. (2007). International dimensions of organizational behavior. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Ashforth, B.E. & Humphrey, R.H. (1995). 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Sinclair, A. (1993). Approaches to organisational culture and ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 12(1), 63-73. The Economist. (2009). The virtual organization. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/14301746. Willcoxson, L. & Millett, B. (2000). The management of organizational culture. Australian Journal of Management and Organizational Behavior, 3(2), 91-99. Read More