...Executive Summary The Path-goal theory was originally developed by Evans (1970) and later modified by House (1971). The theory was designed to identify a leader’s most practiced leadership style as motivation to get subordinates to accomplish goals. The path-goal theory reinforces the idea that motivation plays an important part in how a supervisor and a subordinate interact and, based on that interaction, the overall success of the subordinate (House, 1971). To test whether employee productivity and motivation is linked to clearly defined, specific and challenging goals we distributed surveys to both the employees and managers of two Scotia Bank branches in the British Virgin Islands and Dominica. The surveys were both tailored to glean the leadership styles of the managers and provide a clear insight into how employees perceived their jobs. Upon analysis of the data we can see that the directive and achievement oriented leadership styles, with a lack of focus on supportive or participative leadership employed by the managers at the branch in Dominica led to dissatisfaction amongst their employees. In contrast the employees of the Scotia Bank branch from the British Virgin Islands had a far more favorable outlook when it came to job satisfaction as a result of the employment of participative and supportive leadership styles in conjunction with the manager’s achievement oriented and directive styles. We can see from the results of the survey and the supporting analysis that...
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...managers that apply leadership theories and motivation theories can create productive employees to reach organizational goals. In the case study “A Question of Motivation” Robbins and Judge (2007) have created two managers for this scenario; Jonathan is the more effective manager who is liked by his employees while Dan is a less effective manager that is not well liked. They also introduce two employees; Stephanie who works for Jonathan she is very happy with her job and has a high respect for Jonathan as her manager. Alex is very unhappy with his job and has no respect for his manager Dan. Our team has chosen to analyze this case study by applying the motivational theories of “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” and the “Equity Theory of Motivation”; the leadership theories of “The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership” and “The Hershey-Blanchard Life Cycle Theory of Leadership” (Certo & Certo, 2009). Motivation Motivation is very important in understanding employee’s behavior and can influence this behavior to accomplish goals and objectives. Managers need to understand their employee’s needs, roles and perceptions in order to motivate (Certo & Certo, 2009). In the case study by Robbins and Judge (2007), “A Question of Motivation” the two managers (Dan & Jonathan) have two totally different ideas of motivation. The motivation theories that can be applied to this situation are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Equity Theory of Motivation. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Maslow's...
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... Introduction: Motivation is one of the most important managerial and human factor affecting human behavior, performance and attitude. Motivation has called as “the core of management”. For this reason managers attach great importance to motivation in organizational activities. Effective directing of people leads the organization to effectiveness, both at individual and organizational level. Definition of motivation: Motivation is the willingness to exert high level of effort to reach organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts ability to satisfy some individual and group need. Motivation is the driving force which help causes us to achieve goals. Robert Dubin defines Motivation as “the complex forces starting and keeping a person at work in an organization. Motivation is something that moves the person to action and continues him in the course of action of action already initiated”. Characteristics of Motivation: On the basis of above description, we can find out some characteristics of motivation. The characteristics of motivation are: 1) Motivation is a continuous process. It is not a time bound program or a touch-and-go affair. Human needs are infinite. A soon as one need is satisfied new ones arise. 2) Motivation is a psychological concept. It is based on human needs which generate within an individual. Needs are feelings influence the behavior and activities of the individual and group. 3) Motivation is a psychological concept...
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...Sources of Motivation This document will provide a brief description of what motivation is; it will identify at least two sources of motivation, explain the relationship between motivation and behavior, and will examine how behavior exhibits motivation. How is motivation defined? Motivation is defined as an internal process that makes an individual move toward a goal, and it is what causes an individual to act the way he or she does to accomplish that goal. However, motivation can only be limited by an individual’s behavior (Deckers, 2010). The sources of motivation are able to originate from internal sources that are described as biological and psychological variables, and from external sources, such as incentives and goals (Deckers, 2010). The most important sources of motivation are biological, psychological, emotional, environmental, and evolutionary. Biological and psychological have an immense influence on motivation as well as and these two sources are considered internal variables while environmental is considered an external variable. Biological is emotions or feelings such as appetite and hormones that work in the individual body. Psychological can be described as the “need to feel right” that can motivate the individual to act together with others. Environmental is described as the positive incentives or goals that create a center of attention on an individual whereas the negative consequences are a drive back to the individual. Emotional can be describe...
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...Maribel’s Motivation Team is a brand new company into the marketplace. It is vital for any business to have an effective vision and mission statement. For an organization to be successful it is important it know what it wants to achieve in the future and what the organization itself is about. Tough (2007) says, creating a vision and mission statement is a method to communicative these ideas to yourself, customers, employees, and to the world.” The vision and mission statements consist of the values of the business and how they plan to operate. These methods will assist to establish the planned direction that Maribel’s Motivation Team will take. Business and services Maribel’s Motivation Team is a company that will help others achieve his or her goals in life. People need motivation to accomplish its goal in life. A winner is a winner by willing to do something a loser is not willing to do. To be a winner the person needs to be willing to feel uncomfortable in a new situation. This company will also offer additional information to the customer’s goal and guide him or her to the right person or company that is able to help the customer. This will be a long process, but with time and dedication anything is possible. For example, if someone always has been overweight his or her whole life, and at the present time needs motivation and help to lose the weight Maribel’s Motivation Team would help them. Maribel’s Motivation Team will provide the motivation and refer...
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...Sources of Motivation Latonia Wells Psy 355 Sources of Motivation Have you ever wondered why it is hard to accomplish some tasks you set out to do? Achieving a task or accomplishing a goal depends on several factors that all require a force behind them to make them take action or work as a motivator. Everyone is not always inspired to accomplish their goals and they need this force to initiate and guide their behaviors while pushing them in the right direction. So how does it start, motivation is a concept that is conditional in all living organisms, which are driven by needs. Motivation starts with characteristics that cause an individual to take action in attempt to achieve a goal or task in life. Lack of motivation compels a person to give up when obstacles or troubles arise. Over the years researchers have discovered several theories to explain and understand motivation and how it is related to behaviors. This paper will define motivation, identify two sources of motivation, explain the relationship between motivation and behavior, and examine how motivation is exhibited in behavior. Motivation Motivation is a major influence based on what people do and how they act. Motivation consists of disposition that can pull or pull an individual in a particular direction, depending on the end state. According to Decker’s actions are induced by motives (push) or incentives (pull) and to be motivated is to be moved into action some form of action. Motivation is conceptualized...
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...and Differences Edith Woodard Walden University Dr. Chappell PSYC-5240-1 Human Motivation March 13, 2012 Motivational Similarities and Differences 1. Motivational Similarities and Differences Human behavior is something that has become the focus of research all over the world. Everyone who is anyone wants to know what causes us as human beings “to do what we do, and to act the way we act.” Some say that “motivation is also a desire operating on the will and causing it to act.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2010, p.810). It is also considered to be “the primary driver of our behavior.” In times past “motivated behavior has also been studied as a rational attempt to achieve a specific articulated (or accessible) end or purpose, rather than as an attempt to fulfill an underlying emotionally-charged desire.” (Thrash & Elliot, 2001). “Most researchers believe that motivational theories explain the three interrelated aspects of human behavior which is the choice of a particular action, persistence with it and the effort expended on it, leaving it up to motivational psychologists to attest to these findings.” And to us motivation explains the why of our actions, and addresses the innermost parts of us which are our desires, or those buttons that are sometimes pushed that gives us that driving force to tackle things head on or maybe even act out of character. Our motivations say to us that we can make it especially when others tell us that we won’t, which makes...
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...Sources of Motivation Paper Tiffany Howard PSY/xxx 21 May 2015 Mr Michael Norman The term motivation has numerous aspects as related to different individual. Therefore it can be defined in many ways. Motivation has a major influence on an individuals behavior and is something that can be hard to retain as it is part of our human nature to stumble upon obstacles that can cause us to lose motivation. Will power and self determination are required in maintaining focus for achievement. Being motivated requires inspiration and incentive. This paper will provide an understanding of the term motivation, identify sources of motivation, explain the relationship between motivation and behavior, and examine how behavior exhibits motivation. Motivation involves the emotional, cognitive, and social forces that stimulates our behavior. Cognitive knowledge is important because it enables the individual to evaluate incentives, understand how to attain them, and assess the chances of success (Deckers, 2010). Motivation is the process which initiates, directs and supports goal focused behaviors. In simpler everyday terms, motivation can be described as why an individual does something. In life, motivation is a necessity to be successful in completing a particular task or endeavor and acts as the driving force. Motivation can be viewed as an internal energy which provokes an individual to initiate something in order for something to be accomplished. Three aspects...
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...What is Motivation? Motivation is the force that makes us do things: this is a result of our individual needs being satisfied (or met) so that we have inspiration to complete the task. These needs vary from person to person as everybody has their individual needs to motivate themselves. Depending on how motivated we are, it may further determine the effort we put into our work and therefore increase the standard of the output. When we suggest factors (or needs) that determine the motivation of employees in the workplace, almost everyone would immediately think of a high salary. This answer is correct for the reason that some employees will be motivated by money, but mostly wrong for the reason that it does not satisfy others (to a lasting degree). This supports the statement that human motivation is a personal characteristic, and not a one fits all option. …………….. importances of motivations Motivation is a very important for an organization because of the following benefits it provides:- 1. Puts human resources into action Every concern requires physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. It is through motivation that the human resources can be utilized by making full use of it. This can be done by building willingness in employees to work. This will help the enterprise in securing best possible utilization of resources. 2. Improves level of efficiency of employees The level of a subordinate or a employee does not only depend upon his...
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...Improving Motivation CEO Family First Rehabilitation Center What is Motivation ? Motivation is “the process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.” Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T. (2014). In order to work toward attaining a specific goal here at First Family Rehabilitation Center, an employee must possess intensity to complete specific goals and choose the most accurate direction that will benefit our organization. Although motivation is defined as a process it does not include periods of stagnation. Motivation is seen as a reoccurring continuous process. What Influences Motivation? As CEO of Family First Rehabilitation Center, I believe that self-determination theory, goal setting theory, and self-efficacy theory all influence motivation. All three of these theories reflex on intensity, direction and the persistence of effort needed to attain our goals here at First Family Rehabilitation Center. To support this proposal, I will present to you actions and strategies that management can implement in order to improve motivation within the organization. Feedback, management, and creation of realistic goals are three of the most important topics that can be implemented to improve motivation. Management We must realize that mangers play a significant role in therapist motivation. Changing the leadership style of a department can possibly change the entire atmosphere. As CEO there are two forms of leadership...
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...elements to look at in the analysis of employee behaviour is motivation. Motivation is a key element in organizational behavior because employee needs to be motivated in order to exhibit an attitude or behavior that will help achieve the goals and objectives of the organization and thereby improve performance over time. This paper will attempt to examine motivation, its definition, theories and how it improves employee performance as a determinant for achieving organizational performance. MOTIVATION DEFINED Motivation is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to act towards a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal-directed behaviors. It can be considered a driving force; a psychological one that compels or reinforces an action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is a motivation that elicits a desire to eat. Motivation is the purpose or psychological cause of an action (Schater 2011 as cited in Wikipedia). This is the process by which a person wants and chooses to act in a particular way (Maund, 2001:440) as cited in (Opu, 2008 pp. 32). According to (Slocum and Hellriegel 2007), motivation represents the forces acting on or within a person that cause the person to behave in a specific, goal-directed manner. From the above definition, we could infer that because motives of employees affect their productivity, one of management’s jobs is to channel employee motivation effectively toward achieving organizational...
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...Running Head: MOTIVATION CONCEPTS ANALYSIS Motivation Concepts Analysis Name Human Motivation PSY 320 Faculty Date Introduction on motivational concepts Motivation is comprised of at least 3 components: direction, effort and persistence. Additional factors to motivation are intrinsic: “self generated factors such as responsibility, skills and abilities, interest, opportunities for career advancement and extrinsic: things that motivate an individual such as rewards, promotional opportunities or punishment.” (The Manager, 2007) According to the text, Understanding Motivation and Emotion by Reeve, “motivation is the study of the processes that provide behavior with energy and direction.” (Reeve, 2001) Describe how the theory of intrinsic motivation would and would not be applicable if applied to two or more workplace situations drawn from personal experience Some types of intrinsic motivation for employees are: challenge, interest, learning, meaning, purpose and creative flow. Intrinsic motivation is self generated and can be more effective when an individual has a general interest in something that has appeal to the individual. Intrinsic motivation requires a manager to engage an individual in a task and inform them of the benefits and impact on the employee. About two years ago our company was rolling out a third party record keeping platform. This required testing of our existing database systems for compatibility. My manager wanted me to be a subject matter...
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...Education Charles Kurose September 2013 MOTIVATION, BEHAVIOR, AND PERFORMANCE IN THE WORKPLACE I. INTRODUCTION Motivation is a subject that has long interested researchers and practitioners seeking to understand human behavior and performance. Over the course of the 20th century and into the new millennium, scholars have developed sweeping theories and have amassed large bodies of applied research investigating motivation across a variety of settings. Motivation has been studied in schools, the workplace, government, and athletic competitions, to name but a few contexts. It has been studied at the level of the individual, the group, and the organization. Some motivation researchers have employed cognitive models, which emphasize the role of thought processes in determining motivation and behavior, while other researchers have adopted non-cognitive paradigms, which focus on factors such as personality traits, affective states, and environmental determinants. This paper focuses specifically on research about motivation and behavior in the workplace. It discusses motivation theory, which has broad applicability across contexts, as well as the empirical research conducted in workplace contexts. In reviewing this literature, particular emphasis is placed on research about motivation and behavior as they relate to individual performance. A central aim of motivation research is to explicate the complex relationships that exist among motivation, behavior, and performance—such knowledge...
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...Defining Motivation PSY/355 February 11, 2013 Gavin G. Coriell, M.S. Ed What is motivation? Motivation is what drives one to do something. Motivation is how one is able to achieve a goal, a task, desire, or necessary action to obtain a reward, incentive, or a self gratification. Motivation is a behavior that drives someone to perform an action or strives to change an action. Motivation is individually based as each individual has different desires, motives, and incentives as to what motivates them into their personal goals, personal needs and self-gratification. Human’s motivation is determined as a behavior in which one has to perform a certain behavior to receive a result in either the terms of a goal, an accomplishment or a necessary need. If one is hungry they get up and get something to eat; if one hears music they find catchy they begin to bob their head or sing with music/song lyrics or even hum to the notes. The motivations in these two examples are the motivation to eat to satisfy hunger. The motivation for bobbing the head, singing or humming to music is the satisfaction of enjoyment or the encouragement to dance a feeling of pleasure associated with the behavior of motivation. In motivation there are several sources in which motivation initiates from. Right now there are 20 students taking this class; Motivational Process in Human Psychology the goal or achievement is to obtain a Bachelors Degree in Psychology, however the reasons for obtaining...
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...the Workplace Motivation in the workplace has many advantages. Motivation enables managers to encourage workers and employees to attain goals required for organizational missions. Motivation theories have evolved in the past 100 years. Motivation theorist such as Descartes, Darwin, and Hull had many ideas regarding what drives motivation. “When stumped trying to explain why people do what they do, we can turn to theories of motivation…” (Reeves, p. 5, 2001). The goal-setting theory shaped by Edwin Locke explains how organizational goals are used in the workplace to inspire motivation. Two workplace scenarios will be described. The goal-setting theory will be applied to both scenarios. Managers and leaders need to encourage the attainment of workplace goals. “Motive is a general term that identifies the common ground shared by needs, cognitions, and emotions…” (Reeves, p. 7, 2001). When managers cannot motivate employees effectively the environment and the employee suffer. Job satisfaction drops and the employee will no longer value his or her job. When this happens productivity will suffer. Setting goals does not always produce goal attainment. Locke’s theory does have drawbacks. The employee may not value the goal or may not be given enough positive reinforcement to retain his or her goals. Locke’s goal-setting theory states goals should be set to encourage motivation. In his theory a primary goal should be set. The goal should focus on the individual...
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