Leadership and Motivation in the Workplace - Term Paper Example

? Do you remember your high school days when your president became the government president? Do you also remember that there were also leader wannabes who tried different campaigns to be the president but it just did not work out? Do you remember when your best friend became the president of your neighborhood club because the other kids liked him? Do you remember how your friend wanted to be a group leader for a community project because it will make him popular with the girls? The different scenarios mentioned are actually the different ways of how leaders emerge. Some people may consistently emerge as leaders, whether with a circle of friends or a student body. Some never became leaders at all whether there was an attempt or none at all. Some people are meant to become leaders and others are just meant to be the support system or mere followers. However, leaders can never be leaders without their followers and to keep them as followers, leaders need to make sure they are always motivated. This is important, especially in a workplace setting, to ensure the productivity and performance of the employee. Do you remember that time when your company announced they will be giving out bonuses to the people who can exceed their sales target by 20%? Do you remember your co-worker feeling excited because he can buy the laptop he was eyeing for a month already or another co-worker feeling excited because she can have extra money she can use to buy her daughter a graduation gift. These are different motivating factors and it differs from one person to another. Some people are easily motivated and some are not. You may be motivated from the idea of having additional income but your colleague may be motivated from the idea that he is given additional tasks to prove his skills. Things that matters to us motivate us. This connection can be further explained using Maslow’s need theory. Although it is more of a theory of human development than work motivation, Maslow’s need theory explains that there is a hierarchy of human needs (Landy & Conte, 2010). When one level is met, the higher level is activated. The lowest, the most basic and the one that takes the highest precedence are physiological needs, such as food, water and sleep. Next would be security, such as being free from threats to one’s living conditions. Third are social needs, such as the desire to be accepted by a group. Next are esteem needs, such as being respected for one’s accomplishments, skills and capabilities. In addition, the highest are self-actualization needs. These are the needs to be the best or to develop one’s capacities to the fullest. In Maslow’s theory, very few people ever reach this level since human behavior is designed not to be content and so we always seek for improvement, development and growth. Although Maslow’s hierarchy of needs refer to human development, we can use this to understand why some people in our workplace are motivated by bonuses, some by being promoted, and some by an extra time off. We are working because we need to earn a living. However, a company needs you to become an asset to the company. In addition, simply coming in to work just to earn your daily living is not enough to make you an asset. That’s why leaders are continuously working on keeping their members motivated, to make sure that they become productive employees and to turn them from simple employees to a company’s asset. Understanding the hierarchy of needs enables leaders to target specific needs of the employees. Looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it can be seen that the second to the highest level is esteem needs, and the highest is self-actualization. Looking at the four individual differences (personality, self-esteem, intrinsic motivation tendency, and need for achievement) that are related to work motivation, we can see that motivation is a significant part of our life, not just in work. This is the reason other employees are easily motivated and others are easily discouraged. There are five dimensions of personality that are related to the level of motivation. These are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and stability. High levels of motivation can be found in people who are conscientious, stable and extraverts (Aamodt, 2012). Another important factor that influences the level of motivation is a person’s self-esteem. People with high self-esteem have higher levels of motivation compared to those who have low self-esteem. According to Korman’s consistency theory, self-esteem and performance is positively correlated (Aamodt, 2012). Those who have higher self-esteem actually want to perform at a high level compared to those with low self-esteem. This indicates that those who are comfortable with themselves, those who value themselves and have self-worth, those who feel good about who they are, are more motivated to work and to perform compared to those who have low self-esteem. Those people with low-esteem tend to undermine their skill and capabilities and they have a tendency to feel worthless and unvalued. This is translated to their performance. Since they do not feel confident about themselves, they tend to pull down the quality of their work. Even if they have the skills, if they do not feel sure of themselves, they tend to perform lower than what they can actually do. This shows that the more self-assured you are, the more you value yourself, the better you become because you don’t want to see yourself fail or be at the bottom. Therefore, there is a tendency for you to work harder and to push for performance. If you have low self-worth, you tend to believe that you have no worth because you cannot perform better than you can. With this kind of thought, the employee tends to go on a downhill performance because he believes he cannot make it to the top, or even at the average level. If you think about it, once you are able to push a person’s self-worth or self-esteem, he will be able to perform better. As you can see, esteem needs are part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This means that people need to feel valued, not only by others but also by themselves. Using this theory, the success approach is created (Aamodt, 2012). The success approach works on the basis that success increases self-esteem. In addition, as we know, through the consistency theory, this improves performance. In addition, improved performance indicates even more success, which boosts the employee’s self-esteem even more. This actually puts things into a cyclical mode, wherein the employee will become motivated enough to continue doing what he is doing, performing better and better. Another approach that may increase self-esteem is to train leaders to initiate confidence in their employee (Aamodt, 2012). Because the higher ups trust him, the employee would feel he is valued, thus increasing his self-esteem. He values himself upon the realization that the company values him. In addition, the cycle begins again. Another factor that influences motivation is one’s intrinsic motivation. Employees would want to perform better because they feel good about it or they feel challenged to do better. This is entirely different from extrinsic motivation. In extrinsic motivation, the employee finds motivation only by getting benefits and incentives from his performance. With intrinsic motivation, the employee does not need any rewards to be motivated. The reward is within himself, that is how he feels when he becomes successful in completing a task, or he is able to beat his previous numbers. The need for achievement is another important factor in determining the level of motivation of a person. As we can remember, the highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the need for self-actualization. This is almost similar to the need for achievement. With this, the employee feels that he wants and needs to do something to achieve certain goals in his/her work, or in their life. Employees who have a strong need for achievement are motivated through challenging tasks, which exercise their capability to make independent decisions. Those with minimal need for achievement are more satisfied with jobs that are less challenging but with high probabilities of success. The need for achievement has the same concept as the need for affiliation and power but has different motivating factors. In the need for affiliation, the employee finds motivation through working with and helping other people. Those who have a need for power find motivation in influencing other people rather than just being successful themselves. Another important aspect of motivation is the discrepancy between what we want, value expected versus what the job really provides. If there is less discrepancy between them, then the employee is more motivated. If there is a great discrepancy between them, then the employee feels underrated or demoralized. This, in turn, lowers their level of motivation and increases the tendency to perform poorly. There are many factors involved when we talk about motivation. Motivation must come from within. Others may only influence us in feeling worthy or valued; they may only guide us to find what can motivate us. However, only we can motivate ourselves. Works Cited Aamodt, M. (2012). Industrial/organizational psychology: an applied approach, 7th ed. CA: Cengage Learning. Print Landy, F. and Conte, J. (2010). Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology., 3rd ed. CA: Wiley & Blackwell. Print Read More