Balancing Motivation at Work - Case Study Example

Name Institution Date Balancing motivation at work Introduction Motivation is a subject that is common in the study of psychology. Various definitions of this key term and psychological concept have been suggested by different scholars. According to Huitt, W (2001) most of the academic work ever written on motivation in psychology by scholars and specialists in educational psychology agree that motivation is an internal state or condition that serves to activate or energize behavior and give it direction towards the attainment of a particular goal. Franken (1994) adds a very important aspect or rather component in this definition by stating that motivation is the arousal, direction, and persistence of behavior. There exist so far two types of motivation. These are extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is the motivation that is in most case influenced by external factors like rewards among others. Intrinsic motivation however is that type of motivation that comes from within the individual and is mostly comes from ones interest in the task being performed or enjoyment of the task itself. Motivation is a very vital aspect in the human behavior as no task or behavior, no matter how simple it may be, can be learnt if there is no motivation, either intrinsic or extrinsic. Various motivational theories have been suggested by different scholars. The expectancy theory for example was suggested by Victor Vroom of the Yale School of Management. The theory in itself focuses more on the mental processes that are associated with ones ability to make choices, the processes a person will go through in the making of choices or in choosing in order tot maximize pleasure and minimize pain. According to Montana, Patrick J; Charnov, Bruce H, Management (2008) "This theory emphasizes the needs for organizations to relate rewards directly to performance and to ensure that the rewards provided are those rewards deserved and wanted by the recipients." It is one theory that helps in the explanation of the behavior of individuals in an organization which in turn can help to solve some of the problems an organization is facing in the current fluctuating organizational climate. Victor H. Vroom puts more of his focus and emphasis on the outcomes of a behavior and not on the needs’ relationship (in most cases internal) as suggested by people like Maslow in his psychological theories. In his hypothesis in this theory, Vroom says that an individual’s motivational level will depend on the link between his effort, the performance and the motivation he/she has in the task being performed. He introduces to us three distinct variables to give an account for all this. They are; Valance (V), Expectancy (E) and Instrumentality (I). Victor suggests that the three variables can be combined in a single formula to calculate the motivation of an employee as; Motivation=Valence*Expectancy (Instrumentality) This can be used to calculate and therefore predict things like; job satisfaction, the ability of an employee to stay in the job, one’s choice of occupation, and even the effort one might apply at the work he/she is performing According to Victor, valance is the value or rather importance a person attaches to the expected outcome. A good example is a case where a person is being motivated by the pay he or she receives, and then if you propose to this person something to do with overtime, he/she might not attach that much value to it. Expectancy on the other hand is the belief that if one increases effort in the task that is being performed, then the result is a proportionate increase in the performance that will be seen from the same task. For example, if I work more, then I will gain more experience. Expectancy is however affected by external such as the availability of things like support from the people one is working with, raw materials and even a question like do you have the necessary and required skills has to be adequately answered. Finally, instrumentality is also a belief just like expectancy thigh this one deals with performance and outcome in the sense that if an individual performs well in any task he or she is performing then automatically a very valuable outcome will be seen at the end of the day. For example, the belief that if one takes some good care of his cow, then there is something in it for him. This variable however is also affected by some other external factors. They include the integrity of those deciding the type of outcome on gets, the transparency of the process itself and the rules that govern the whole process. Different organizations have different ways of management in order to meet their set down goals and objectives. In the same way people are different in their behavioral orientations, may be due to the different backgrounds from which we have been brought up from. This accounting firm, Smith, Nguyen and Kelly (SNK) brings in these two employees, Alex and Suzie who best explain this reality. Alex is extroverted and seems enthusiastic about starting this job according to jasmine whereas Suzie seem very introverted and appeared happy to let Alex do all the talking. What a contrast, yet they were both expected to help this firm meet its goals and objectives. Jasmine however needed more time to get to understand Alex better because he was not the person she assumed he can be. While Suzie is the down-to-earth type who is willing to learn and improve on her performance, Alex is the know-it-all type, sorry to say, who believes in himself. According to the expectancy theory, it is clear that different individuals in any organization will have different sets of goals and will be motivated too if they see that good performance will lead to a worthy reward and that this reward will in turn satisfy a need they might be having. Alex knew that if he was to be seen as working well then Jasmine would be pleased with his performance and therefore approve his two weeks holiday at the end of the year. His confidence makes him bring to his mentor the projects he did and scored a plus for them yet the ones on which he needed guidance, he did not confess. When his ‘negative’ characters detected though, he is not very happy with his mentor/counselor as we are told in the case study given that he told Jasmine that he is not very motivated to put in long hours for SNK anymore. Furthermore to clearly show what really motivated him to bring to jasmine his ‘well completed’ projects he openly asks Jasmine: ‘what is the point of working really hard and putting in long hours, if you cannot even get two weeks holiday at the end of the year?’ the holiday then was the real core motivator of his ‘good’ work. Possible solutions to the problems in the organization Like many other organizations, management challenges can lead businesses, firms and organizations into serious management jeopardy just because of a small issue, like Alex’s performance in this case. It is therefore very important for an organization to know or rather detect in advance the type of problem they are dealing with at the time and following that finding, they can apply appropriate corrective measures. Considering the three variables in the expectancy theory by Victor H. Vroom, it is vital for management systems to know the type of trainings and supervision a new employee needs to have. In this case for example, Alex needed more than one person to look at his work. Furthermore it is not right at times to trust employees confidence among other good qualities they might posses. Moreover in normal circumstances you expect any person’s entry behavior to be extremely good because people will in most cases try to bring out the good side if themselves. It therefore is good and very important in that matter that they undergo an induction seminar, training, whatever relevant names it might be called to ensure they are conversant with the system. Just like Jasmine was given that two day training course on welcome to manager, Suzie and Alex too needed the same training. This makes an employee, and a new one in this matter, aware of the goals and objectives, vision, mission and even the structure of the organization. In addition, John Kotter (1990) in his book “A Force for Change; How Leadership Differs from Management”, he says that creating value in a person, or even organization requires some significant change. He gives, in the same book, eight reasons why the change process fail and even goes further to give an eight change phases model as a solution to the eight reasons that can cause the downfall of most management systems. The eight reasons for change failure include; allowing too much complacency, failing to build substantial coalition, understanding the need for a clear vision, failing to communicate the vision, permitting roadblocks against the vision, not planning and getting short-term wins, declaring victory too soon and not anchoring changes in corporate culture. Most of these reasons can be seen as sources of failure the firm experienced by trusting Jasmine and therefore Alex too much. Similarly, letting the supervision of these new recruits to such a new manager who, apart from the office work an additional family responsibility on her schedule to attend to, in away or the other led to this misfortune. More so, considering the extreme difference in personality of these two new recruits, it serves us with a concrete reason to stress on the vitality of the training mentioned earlier Kotter’s eight phases change model includes; establishing a sense of urgency, creating a coalition, developing a vision, sharing the vision, empowering people to clear obstacles, securing short term wins, consolidating and keeping the move and anchoring the change. He even goes further to stress the importance of applying this solution model in its correct sequence. This model clearly shows the importance of the collaboration between Jasmine and the other senior partners in the career development of Alex. More so, jasmine does not take time to share the vision of the firm with Alex and assumes that the confidence of ale will explain the whole thing to him. Though Suzie was not to be compared to Alex in many things including even preparation to take the job, we see their mentor spending more time to talk top her and at least explain (without her knowledge) some bit of this model to her and it works for Suzie. The leadership problem seen in this scenario makes even Alex want to quit the job on grounds that there is open breach of trust according to Alex and the inability of Jasmine to handle Alex when he comes to her office the very last time. According to Goleman (2002) good leaders are only effective because they provide what he calls resonance that is; they resonate to the emotions and also take care of the emotions of the people who work around them. He states that they guide others to a level where they all feel a sense of mutual comfort. Goleman discusses in his findings of the six leadership styles that exist. They are; visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pace setting and commanding. All of them have different effect on the business climate ranging from positive to negative. I suggest the visionary and coaching which score vary highly in most organizations. In cases when the changes needed require a new vision or when a very clear direction or guidance is the need, then the visionary leader is to move the people he/she works with to a shared dream as he/she inspires them and even explains how their individual effort are effective in the attainment of the dream. This is the most important aspect that Jasmine did not let Alex understand in the last meeting they had where as e are told each of them walked out more frustrated. According to the coaching style, Jasmine is expected to talk to Alex, listen to him too and even help him identify his strengths and weaknesses too and closely follow him personally to supervise the work he has done. This in turn would have helped connect the needs and wants of Alex to the main goals of the firm leading to a high level of coherence. Conclusion Running an organization, no matter how small it may be is a real challenge because the individual motivators vary. Some employees on the other hand can hide their real characters and sometimes by the time this is realized the firm might have suffered a loss even loss of customers. this puts managers in the task of taking care of the needs of the vast numbers under there care in order to achieve the required and laid down objectives. Some measures however can be taken in order to reduce this or even counter it in the cases where the problem already exists. Inviting the employees to share in the vision and goals of the organization is also a key ingredient in improving efficiency. It is also important to have well able leaders who will take care of the different needs of their subordinates. Bibliography http://www.arrod.co.uk/archive/concept_vroom.php http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/ Montana, Patrick J; Charnov, Bruce H, Management – 4th edition; (2008) – Barron's Educational Series, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7641-3931-4 . Read More