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Patterns of Employee Motivation Assignment 1 by Iliana Marin, EDD 8472 Human Resource Development Nova Southeastern University May 31, 2009 Introduction What motivates one person may not motivate another; likewise the actions behind the motivational behavior may not always have the same impact on the same person. Today’s leaders need to identify legitimate and satisfactory ways to convince followers to improve their behavior and productivity on the job with limited financial resources. Leaders will need to be strategic and creative when developing plans that motivate and a diverse workforce.
Changing people’s behaviors and values is very difficult, with this in mind supervisors design motivating jobs and work environments that deliver high performance results. (Robbins and DeCenzo, 2007) The writer will discuss different models and theories that show how to achieve this most efficiently such as the Self-Determination Theory (Turban et al, 2007), The Integrative Model (Eder and Sawyer 2008), and The Componential Model of Employee Creativity (Meyer and Becker, 2004) as it relates to teacher retention and motivation. Literature Review
Multiple studies reveal that teacher retention needs to start the first day of orientation. Often teachers appear overwhelmed by the amount of information they are bombarded with a few days prior to the opening of school. New teachers eager to go into a classroom ready to change the world are faced with the reality of the many compliance issues necessary and required paperwork needed to teach. According to Charlton and Kritsonis (2009) employees make decisions to work for a particular organization based on how valued the company makes them feel, opportunity for growth, and financial rewards.
In the teaching profession, financial rewards are difficult to deliver as most systems are based on seniority and educational credentials. Although there is ample opportunity for growth in the education arena, promotion often requires additional training and the attainment of advanced or specialized degrees. Educational administrators have the difficult task of motivating and retaining talented staff. Effective leaders motivate and inspire and provide a work environment where employees and students are happy to be a part off. They seek optimal learning environment for every child and the satisfaction of needs for every stakeholder” (2009, p. 49). The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a theory of motivation concerned with how our natural or intrinsic human tendencies (personality) support and help us behave in effective and healthy ways (Turban et al, 2007). According to the theory, people’s behaviors are either a result of external factors or caused by intrinsic factors. In this study, the authors aimed to prove that employees can learn new behaviors if they are trained on how to react to specific situations.
The theory shows that the easiest learned behavior is one where a negative action will result in negative consequences. The challenge is in capitalizing in positive behaviors of employees that will lead to motivational situations resulting in employee’s better performance. The study concluded that certain personality types, such as extroverted personalities, tend to be more motivated towards work; however, the study failed to conclude that any particular type of personality had a greater propensity to perform better on the job.
Eder and Sawyer, “argue that commitment and motivation are distinguishable…that commitment is one component of motivation and, by integrating theories of commitment and motivation, we gain a better understanding of both” (2008, p. 991). The authors aim is to define commitment and motivation in a realm that will enable leaders to utilize these as one concept to foster a productive workforce. The theory aims to show that by providing employees access to goal choices, self-efficacy, and the inherent mechanisms of goal setting leaders can have more committed and motivated employees.
This study is consistent with discussions from Robbins and DeCenzo (2007). Meyer and Becker (2004) explain that the Componential Model of Employee Creativity study aims to show that employees who are highly creative are also highly motivated in their jobs. The authors explain that in order to achieve this high level of employee creative, providing an environment goes beyond the setting, that employers must provide the tools to empower employees through professional development opportunities so that employees have the opportunity to learn new processes and skills that will develop the employee’s self-confidence.
The greater the degree of self-confidence the employee develops the more motivated these employees will be performing their jobs. Motivating a Diverse Workforce In an earlier post for the course the writer discussed several theories of motivation. According to Robbins and DeCenzo (2007) these include the Need for Achievement Concept, the Equity Theory, and the Expectancy Theory. The Need for Achievement Concept assumes that workers are naturally driven to succeed and that the workforce is comprised of high achievers; however, research shows that in developed countries between 10% – 20% of the workforce are high achievers.
In addition, when crossing the cultural boundaries to less developed countries, these percentages are even lower. This concept would lead us to believe that in developed countries 20% of the workforce is responsible for the great accomplishments in industry. Leaders are aware that not all workers are high achievers and that they are motivated by things other than achievement, money is known to be a great motivator. “A review of 80 studies evaluating motivational methods and their impacts on employee productivity revealed…monetary incentives led to an average increase of 30 percent” (2007, p. 01-202). With this in mind, supervisors need to be aware how equity theory impacts workers performance. In this theory, workers are influenced not only by how much money they make from the job they perform, but also by what other workers with similar skills and aptitudes earn within the organization in relation to their job. On the other hand, the expectancy theory suggests that workers analyze and determine to which degree their efforts impact performance, to what degree erformance rewards are available, and whether or not the performance rewards are worth their effort. When motivating a diverse workforce we must remember to recognize differences, design jobs that motivate workers, and develop a tool box that you can draw upon. Many supervisors are limited to the amount of monetary compensation that workers can receive. As a result, supervisors need to be creative in not only by recognizing and celebrating employees’ successes, but create opportunities for workers to earn special perks.
McNamara (2009) tells us that during a recession there are few additional things that we must consider when motivating employees. The author suggested that it is important to keep the lines of communication open. In difficult economic times, sometimes no news is not good news and it is not the best option. To the degree that you are allowed to within your organization and position to share information with workers, share it in order to subside their worries, avoid misconstrued information leaks and gossip.
Be a role model and continue to display enthusiasm and show your workers that the show must go on. Develop intrinsic rewards for your workers to keep them motivated. Examples How the Writer Would Use Results of Studies The writer works in a public school district and supervises 230 teachers, who have not received raises or steps the past two years, and will have two days pay deducted from their next pay check. The overall atmosphere throughout the district is of gloom and doom and who will be the next surplus teacher or the next administrator or clerical staff member to be lay off.
Needless to say the writer had to be very creative about how to motivate the teachers, especially with new legislature looming on how school grades will be evaluated in 2009-2010. In this scenario, the writer used the Componential Model of Employee Creativity (Meyer and Becker, 2004). The rationale for implementing this theory is because the writer has little or no control over teacher compensation, but is has control over what professional development opportunities are offered to teachers.
This year the writer focused on providing professional development where teachers would be able to upgrade their technical skills, enabling them to deliver state of the art instruction to Information Technology students so that students would be prepared to take industry certification exams at the end of the school year, which made the teachers more valuable to their administration because schools would earn additional FTE funding for each graduating senior who achieved industry certification.
Teachers who agreed to participate in the year long training received upgraded software for their labs and equipment where there was a need. Lastly, all of the teachers who participated in the training will have the opportunity to enroll in a four-day summer paid training where they will be able to earn industry certification credentials at no charge. As students began taking their industry certification exams, the writer began receiving emails from teachers stating that students were successfully passing the tests.
As emails began flying back and forth, the tone of the emails reflected the degree of excitement the teachers were experiencing by watching their students succeed. At one point it became epidemic, as teachers who had not yet begun testing their students, sent emergency emails asling if the writer would extend the time period for testing. At the end of the process, the writer took time to congratulate and acknowledge each teacher for the great work and efforts throughout the school year.
Although the measures used by the writer did not have any significant impact on the teachers’ earnings, the purchase of upgraded industry accepted software made their teaching relevant and challenging. Also providing assistance with equipment upgrades facilitated the process. Finally, providing a stipend payment for teachers during a few days during the summer and giving them the opportunity to achieve industry credentials at no cost helped raise their morale and confidence. The message sent was that even during difficult times together we can all do extraordinary things. Conclusion
Different models and theories on employee motivation abound, the trick is to find the one the fits your specific situation. Public education is very different from private enterprise and has more limitations when it comes to financial compensation. Although we all like to think that educators do what they do because they love what they do, and undoubtedly this is true for most educators, during these very difficult financial times, leaders need to develop processes whereby they can continue to motivate a workforce that is plagued with negativism and gloom. REFERENCES Charlton, D. nd Kritsonis, W. (2009-2010). National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal. V 26 (3). Turban et al (2008). Antecedents and locus of casualty: An application of self-determination theory. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2007, p. 2376-2404. McNamara, H. (2009). Five ways to motivate staff during a recession. Ezine Articles. Retrieved May 29, 2009, from http://ezinearticles. com/? 5-Ways-to-Motivate-Staff-During-a-Recession=1855568 Robbins, S. P. , & DeCenzo, D. A.. (2007). Supervision today (5th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.