Question

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

1. After a century-long ‘discovery’ about motivation, have we reached the promised land of healthy, productive, and satisfied employees? What does your own experience during the lockdown period tell you? Which theoretical approach did you find particularly helpful in thinking about your own motivation? Discuss.

2. In your opinion, what did the pandemic teach organizational leaders? Which of the leadership theories will remain relevant in the near future? And why? Or do we now need a new theory of leadership? Discuss.

Answer 1

Solution:

The motivation of employees is dependent on various levels and factors. The motivation levels differ as an employee attains a new level and the factors determining the new motivation level change as well. Hence, the motivation is dependent on various factors. However, if we talk about the workplace in general, claiming that we have reached the promised land of healthy, productive, and satisfied employees would be inappropriate. This is because we are still far from being a land of satisfied employees. The state of equilibrium where all the employees are satisfied and willing to work hard for the company is hard to achieve at least in today's world. The motivation remains one of the crucial factor determining the satisfaction of the employees however, the factors that measure the levels of motivation differ as we move ahead into time.

Dusring the lockdown the motivation played a great role in performing to the best my abilities. The motivation in the given situation was to survive the recession and not lose the job, hence working harder to ensure sufficient value delivery to the company. Thus, the levels of motivation have changed and it now helps in assessing the current satisfaction of the employees with the job. Thus, the lockdown period has helped in assessment of the employment opportunity and analysing the risks associated with loss of employment in pandemic situation.

The theory of motivation that states that the levels of motivation vary as per the needs of the individual is most applicable to my situation during the lockdown. The need during the lockdown was to maintain the job I had with me to ensure regular income, also work hard to do better on the job to avoid any undesirable situation with the company. Thus, these levels of motivation were developed specifically after the lockdown and hence these new levels of motivation were a result of the needs of the lockdown period. Hence, need based motivation is applicable in this case.

Pandemic taught the organization leaders that the levels of motivation is extremely important in employees so that the employees remain productive and work towards making the company effective in all sorts. The pandemic situation led the organizations to shutdown or downsize to manage their business expenses and business operations. The great lesson here was to invest into workforce that will drive value to the organization. Instead of hiring many employees hire the ones with high productivity to ensure lower business expenses and sustained business operations even in worst hit market situations. Hence, this theory of leadership will be most basedon transformational leadership where the leadership is workingtowards making the organization more effective.