Respond to colleague posting in one or more of the following ways:
• Provide additional ways that organizational contexts influence work motivation strategies.
• Critique your colleague’s example of a work motivation strategy that might be effective in his or her current or previous work.
• Provide additional work motivation strategies and explain why they might be effective in your colleague’s work or academic setting.
• Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Expand on your colleague’s posting.
Topic: Work motivation strategies
Work motivational strategies can be applied to a worker by various means. The motivation can be intrinsically or extrinsically generated, or a combination of the two. Psychologists believe that intrinsically motivated workers achieve the most. The problem in most organizational contexts is how to achieve intrinsically motivated workers. Locke and Latham (2004) have suggested a mega-theory of work motivation which is based on the complexity of the various theories that permeate the field of motivation.
It is agreed that workers generally accept work for financial gain which is an extrinsic motivator and through creating the right conditions workers can become intrinsically motivated. Self-determination theory (SDT) suggests that competence and autonomy are key elements in qualitatively superior forms of motivation (Ryan & Deci, 1985). SDT started with Alfred Adler (Weiten, 2008) a contemporary of Freud, who theorized that from childhood a person feels inferior to adults and therefore is motivated to becoming competent and superior in performance and skills. SDT found that extrinsic rewards, as well as external threats can supersede intrinsic motivation. In addition, intrinsic motivation requires interest by the worker, and if that interest is lost, so is the intrinsic motivation.
If we go back to Lewin (1935) who was also a contemporary of Freud, his theory states that human behavior is a product of internal personal states and external environmental conditions. It is clear that the organization creates a major influence on a worker’s behavior and motivation. Bandura (1991) expanded Lewin’s theory into his social cognitive theory (SCT) which emphasized self-efficacy and self-regulation which are both intrinsic oriented work motivation theories. Locke and Latham (2004) seem justified by this complexity in their mega-theory of motivation, but with increasing pressure coming to bear on organizations there is a great need for an increase in human productivity and creativity (Buchner, 2007), regardless of motivation.
In my accounting practice, advancements in computerization has reformed the way accounting services are administered. When I started, the computer era had just dawned and many in accountancy saw the computer as a threat. The fear was that computers automated tasks, so people would lose their jobs. No such thing happened. Accountants rejoiced in the increased productivity that computers created, and bookkeepers worked harder to keep up with the new demand for computer generated results such as monthly or even daily financial statements. Organizations had an extraordinary appetite for information which helped them compete better and more efficiently. Production increased, as did profits.
In today’s environment automation is increasing production, and humans are needed in distributing the additional output, and working out more jobs for computers to do. Economics is about the sharing of wealth and production, and if all remains the same, and production and wealth increase, everyone benefits. The additional wealth and production is coming from two sources, computerization in the form of automation, and new areas of production created by humans for computers to produce. Humans will have a hard job keeping up distributing what computers will produce. Training and education are the basis for human motivation, because we are superbly adapted to changing environments since we found out how to use our brains and hands, and they have grown more competent over the eons.
Alan Woolf
References:
Buchner, T.W. (2007). Performance management theory: A look from the performer’s perspective with implications for HRD. Human Resource Development International, 10(1), 59-73.
Lewin, K. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality. N.Y: McGrawhill.
Locke, E.A., & Latham, G.P. (2004). What should we do about motivational theory? Six recommendations for the twenty-first century. Academy of Management Review, 29(3), 388-403.
Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E.L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.
Weiten, W. (2008). Psychology: Themes and Variations. (7th ed.).