Question

TextBook: Industrial/Organizational Psychology: An Applied Approach (8th ed)

In chapter 9, you learned about many different theories for why employees are motivated to perform well. Even though none of the theories has been completely supported, each has something to offer. For this weeks assignment address the following:

1. Describe a job (or a class) you have had in which you were very motivated to perform well. Why do you think you were motivated?
2. Now describe a job (or a class) in which you were not motivated to perform well. Why?
3. Now based of the various theories you have read, as well as your experiences, design your own theory of job motivation and satisfaction. Feel free to borrow as much as you want from each of the theories discussed in your text (make sure you cite any of those theories that are not your own).

Your paper should be a minimum of 400 words

Answer 1

Q1) I work for a consulting firm which works on client projects in ERP implementation. The projects usually are highly demanding due to travel to cllient locations, challenging deadlines and complexity of the work involved.

I am highly motivated to perform my job of consultant on complex projects due to the below reasons -

a) Challenging work

b) Responsibilities involved

c) Performance is appreciated and rewarded

d) Project experience is key to future career

e) Sense of accomplishment involved as the projects clearly result in achieving end goals

Q2) The job or role in which I'm least motivated is the firm initiative that I'm involved in my firm. Firm initiatives are voluntary supporting activities that an employee performs for the organization. The number of hours that an individual works on firm initiatives is taken into account for performance appraisal.

Below are the reasons for lack of motivation in firm initiatives -

a) These are usually pushed rather than employees getting involved voluntarily

b) Performance is not much appreciated as it is difficult to establish the metrics

c) Though the goal on paper is to accomplish something, the internal goal is to accumulate hours

d) There are no clear responsibilities defined

e) Sense of accomplishment is very low as initiatives are not very structured

Q3) The motivation theory based on my above experiences is -

An individual is motivated to work on a job if it has a clear direction, a set of goals, clearly defined responsibilities, performance management mechanism, useful for future and involvement is out of interest or voluntary rather than pushed or imposed.