Major Issues in Motivation - Essay Example

? Essay Questions Question 2 Motivation Definition Motivation indicates a psychological feature, which makes an organism to focus onacting towards attainment of the desired goals. This feature controls, elicits, and ensures that the behavior towards the attainment of the goal is sustained throughout (Wong-On-Wing et al. 2010). As such, motivation is may be referred to as an inner drive, which arouses action or behavior in a particular manner. Motivation is characterized of having three components: intensity, persistence and activation. Intensity is seen in the ability of an individual to have vigor and concentration in pursuing attainment of a given goal. Persistence depicts a continuous effort that individual places in a goal irrespective of the various obstacles that may exist in the process of pursuing this goal. Finally, activation depicts the process or decision of behavior initiation, which is geared towards attainment of the goal. Motivation is characterized of various theories. Drive reduction theory is one of these theories, which argue that people tend to act such that their needs are reduced and a constant psychological state is maintained (Jiming & Xinjian 2013). An example is that, people will eat so that the need for food is reduced. Homeostasis, which depicts maintenance of a constant physiological equilibrium, is a common idea in this theory. The other theory is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, which suggests that people are highly motivated because of the needs hierarchy. The first level is characterized of physiological needs like security, safety, water and food, the second level is characterized of social interaction needs like need to belong, the third level is characterized of self-esteem needs like need for individuals respect, and the fourth level is characterized of self-actualization needs like needs for one to realize his or her full potential. Maslow has a believe that people will only have an attention for higher needs in times when lower needs have been satisfied satisfactorily (Hayenga & Corpus 2010). These needs of people include learned needs and innate needs, which are influenced significantly by culture and society. There are limited innate needs that include elimination of wastes, oxygen, water and food, and numerous learned needs that include power, autonomy, and achievement. The determination of the level of needs among people is based on the values or perceptions, which people may perceive to be essential in their life. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation depicts a motivation facet that is triggered by enjoyment or interest in the task being performed. This motivation exists internally within an individual and does not depend on desires for reward or external pressures such as recognition for the performance (Mirabela-Constanta & Maria-Madela 2011). Intrinsically motivated individuals tend to focus on completion of their tasks in a willingly manner in order to improve their skills level and increase capabilities. People in an organization may be intrinsically motivated in case of: Them attributing the performance results to factors, which are under their control, or autonomy, If they posses self-efficacy beliefs, skills of making them the best agents of attaining the key goals of the organization, and Have the ability of mastering the culture and ethics of the organization towards attainment of a better performance. Extrinsic motivation on its own is focused on outcomes of performing a given activity. This indicates that extrinsic motivation is not inherent in an individual, but emerges from outside an individual (C?nar et al. 2011). Examples of common extrinsic motivation include rewards like bonus for an improvement in the performance level of an individual. Another example is competition, which triggers an individual to focus on attaining better results in the field of work in comparison to the other individuals in the same field. Comparing extrinsic to intrinsic motivation reveals that extrinsic motivation may lead to an effective reduction in the level of intrinsic motivation. This has been proved by various social psychological researches, which have indicated that extrinsic motivation has the possibility of attaining over justifications (Meiai, & Xuequan 2012). This occurs since the various provisions, which are provided for extrinsic rewards tend to cause an overwhelming reduction in the desirability of performing an activity. This includes the use of the various extrinsic constraints that include punishment threat. The theory of self-determination proposes that motivation that is based on the value of extrinsic features may be internalized by an individual in cases where the task that are being performed by the individual fit the beliefs and values in order to attain the basic psychological needs. This acts as the triggering factor for the extrinsic reward among individuals. Organization Setting Example In an organization, workers normally need to have something, which will ensure that they have the ability and power to keep working. In most cases, salary and pay increase acts as a sufficient feature to ensure that employees have the ability of remaining in an organization and focus on improvement in the level of production and performance of the organization. This is essential since employees deserve to obtain higher levels of motivation so that they can keep on working successfully for an organization or company. Therefore, lack of motivation for employee will contribute towards deterioration in the quality of work or performance level of the employee. Locus of control depicts a personality dimension where most people tend to differ in (Horyna & Bonds-Raacke 2012). This dimension depicts the location of the various factors, which tend to control individuals behavior. The continuum of this locus is characterized of having high internals at one end. This illustrates individuals who have a believe that the ability to control personal behavior is vested within themselves. The other end is characterized of high externals that believe that their behavior control is based on external forces from the immediate surrounding environment. The externals perceive that the world is unpredictable where powerful people, fate and lack tend to control their destinies. As such, an organization has to evaluate its employees and determine their location on the locus of control. This will ensure that the organization proposes the best motivation strategy, which will yield better results. This indicates that a pay increase will motivate employees in an organization effectively if the majority of the employees are located on the high externals continuum. Scientific management theory suggests that pay increase is an effective incentive towards motivation of employees. However, pay increase may not contribute significantly towards motivation of employees. This is because pay increase will only motivate employees who are in the lower level of needs. Higher level of needs employees tend to focus on other things instead of pay increase as a form of motivation. This includes promotion, recognition, and provision of other incentives. Furthermore, pay increase has the ability of motivating individuals who operate under extrinsic motivation. This is because pay increase triggers external pressure for the employee to work successfully towards attainment of better results. In contrast, intrinsic motivation is not reliant on external pressure and forces, but on the inner self drive of an employee. This depicts that pay increase will not contribute significantly towards motivation of employee who are associated with intrinsic motivation. Nevertheless, pay increase will work very well for employees that are characterized of extrinsic motivation. Considering equity theory, pay increase may not be an effective motivation factor for individuals who regard equality in the area of reward. This is because such individuals are focused on ensuring that all the people have a fair reward in terms of pay relative to their job roles and responsibilities in an organization. Employee salary may be the only valued outcome. In such a situation, expectancy theory will be regarded as the most relevant consideration. (Lei 2010) This indicates that expectancy theory may contribute to employee motivation in an organization where the employees have a strong emphasis on the pay they receive after working in an organization. Further, pay increase may contribute towards employee motivation in an organization if the goal setting theory is used. In this theory, specific goals are set such that accomplishment of these goals is associated with earning benefits, which are aimed at motivating employees to improve on their level of performance and focus on achievement and accomplishment of more goals for the organization. Considering a case of McDonald’s Franchise business, the employees in such an organization will consider pay increase as a motivation factor, if such employees are driven by extrinsic motivation. However, in cases where the employees are driven by intrinsic factors towards their motivation, pay increase will not be of any benefit in terms of motivating them. This indicates that the source of motivation or the driving forces of employees will determine their ability to appreciate any motivation strategy that an organization may embrace. For example, if the employees have a stronger emphasis on pay increase, they will be highly motivated in case the organization they work in focus on increasing their pay. In contrast, pay increase may not motivate such employees if they do not have a stronger emphasis on pay. Question 2 Part a My strengths are a person who is talkative, gets well with others, does a thorough job, well groomed, generates ideas, assist others, values aesthetic and artistic experiences, reliable and has a forgiving nature. However, I have weaknesses, which include the ability of getting tense very easily, quarreling with others in case of a conflict, can be moody, easily distracted, and gets nervous easily. Part b According to the theory of John Holland’s people tend to posses six personality types: conventional, enterprising, social, artistic, investigative and realistic. Realistic people are regarded as persons who have the desire of working with machines, tools and animals (Arnold 2004). These people tend to avoid social activities, which include informing others, teaching and healing. Their skills are well developed in terms of working with tools, electrical and mechanical drawings, animals, plants and machines. These people also value practical things that they have the ability of using, touching and seeing. Further, realistic people regard themselves as realistic, mechanical and practical individuals. Investigative people are individuals who have the traits of desire to study and solve scientific and math problems. These people tend to avoid persuading other people, selling and leading. They have a strong value for science and math based issues (Aranya & Wheeler 1986). This makes them to develop a strong comprehension of math and science problems, as well as how to solve them. Investigative people regard themselves as intellectuals, scientific and precise individuals in modern society. Conventional people have a strong desire for working with numbers, machines, or records in a set or orderly manner. This makes them to avoid all forms of unstructured activities, as well as ambiguous activities. These individuals also tend to value attainment of success in the business field as they see themselves as good and orderly people in modern society (Hirschi 2012). They express higher level of skills in terms of working and interacting with numbers and written records in an orderly and systematic way. Enterprising people are characterized of an extensive desire for persuasion and leadership of people. This includes the desire to sell ideas and things to other people while at the same time avoiding activities, which may require scientific or careful observation and analytical thinking (Pike 2006). This personality is regarded as the most effective one when it comes to selling of ideas and things to people whom an organization or institution wants to persuade in order to win their favors or contribution towards a given project. Enterprising people tend to value success in business, leadership and politics, which acts as the main strategy for them to achieve their desired goals. These people see themselves as sociable, ambitious and energetic in modern society. Artistic personality is associated with individuals who have a strong interest in the various creative things, which include creative writing, music, dance, crafts, drama and art. As such, these people tend to have a higher level of avoiding highly repetitive or ordered activities (Saksvik & Hetland 2011). The artistic abilities of these individuals are also well developed. These are seen in art, music, crafts, drama and creative writing. Artistic persons also do value creative arts than other fields of professional expertise. This is because they tend to develop a sense of ownership of this field. Further, artistic individuals regard themselves as people who are independent, original and expressive in what they do in the modern society. Finally, John identified the social personality, which is associated with people who develop higher levels of helping other people in society (Kones 2013). This includes people in giving first aid, nursing individuals, teaching individuals and people highly involved in the provision of information. However, these people do not like working or using animals, tools, or machines as a means of achieving their desired goals and objectives. Social people are very good in giving information, nursing, counseling, and teaching. These are things that the other personalities do not have. Social people value solving social problems and helping people and they see themselves as trustworthy, friendly and helpful individuals in society. Realistic personality is related to social personality. This is because these two personalities have the element of trustworthy for the individuals who possess them. As such, a realistic person is trusted for his or her ability to work with tools and machines. Such a person also exhibits a higher level of tolerance in terms of using machines and tools to achieve the various given goals and objectives. On the other hand, social personality is related to the trustworthy of a person in terms of solving social problems and issues effectively. This acts as the main goal of the personality of being social. Realistic personality is related to conventional personality. This is because both personalities are focused on the ability of individuals to work in an orderly and systematic way without involvement of social issues. These personalities also have an overreliance on the scientific and mathematical concepts. The individuals with these personalities tend to believe that they are more practical than other people and their arguments are based on the presentation of the various facts. People with these personalities also depict higher levels of working in orderly manner, which is characterized of having schedules for the various activities and job responsibilities, which are carried out by these individuals. Moreover, such people value success in business, as well as improvement in the level of performance and attainment of the goals and objectives of the organization or institution they are working in. These two personalities are also related to the investigative personality that is characterized of the desire of studying and solving the various problems in math and science. Investigative personality also shows that such individuals have a passion for science and their comprehension of the math problems and science issues is very high. This makes it very effective for such individuals to have an intellectual and scientific facet of life. Artistic personality is related to the social personality. This is because these two personalites tends to be generated from an individual and are directed towards solving a particular problem, which is of key interest to an individual (Naydenova et al. 2012). For artistic personality, the individual is focused on handling creative activities by being original and expressive to meet the demands of customers. On the other hand, social personality is based on being trustworthy, friendly and helpful to a society. This includes generating ideas and solving the various problems, which may be experienced in a society. Finally, enterprising personality is related to social personality. This is because enterprising personality is focused on leading and persuasion of people (BARRICK et al., 2013). One may not be able to do this if such a person is not social or the social skills of such an individual are below the expected level. Moreover, enterprising like social personality, focuses on presentation of ideas and things, which an individual believes are the best for the society. This is similar to social personality, which is helpful. Furthermore, one may not be effective in social personality if such a person does not have the enterprising personality of persuading and leading people towards solving the social problem that they may be facing. Part c A close evaluation of my strengths and weaknesses reveals that my personality as identified by John is that I am realistic, enterprising and conventional. This is because from the description of a realistic person by John, I love working with machines and tools. This is because I believe that machines and tools act as a means of making work easier. This implies that my relevant organization for working in is a industrial based organization, which is reliant on the use of the various machines and tools as means of making working easier, improving the production level of the organization, and attaining the desired objectives of the organization. I also have a strong value for practical things, which I am able to use, touch and see. This implies that realistic is the most favorable personality for me as indicated by John Holland. I am individual who likes persuading and leading people towards achievement of the various goals or managing a team to ensure that it has the ability of attaining its desired objectives. As such, I focus on creating ideas and selling things such that success is attained effectively without any form of failure. Moreover, I am an ambitious, social and energetic person, a trait which makes me to have courage to persuade people to buy my ideas or things that I am advocating for them. The best organizations where I can utilize this trait are the advocacy based organizations. My enterprising personality is supported by my strength that I can easily talk with people, generate great ideas, and persuade them to follow my ideas as I present them. Finally, my strengths and weaknesses reveal that I am a conventional person. This is because I love working with numbers in a systematic manner. This implies that statistical organizations would be suitable for me to work in. 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