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Workplace Motivation Paper

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Workplace Motivation Paper
Workplace Motivation Paper

When looking at today 's workplace, teams have become one of the most popular organizational methods in developing projects. There is an enduring aspect of teams that makes it powerful and great. But we should not forget to incorporate motivational strategies, in order to intensify the process. Motivation is the gist of any strategic plan and teams are no different. Frederick W. Taylor, a management pioneer, stated that existing reward systems were not designed to reward a person for high production (Ames & Ames, 1989). He observed a very interesting phenomena. It seemed that once a worker realized someone producing less was receiving the same kind of rewards, he would also decrease his own level of production. So, in order to solve this problem, Taylor worked on developing a system that would financially compensate each worker accordingly. This work evolved into existing theories of motivation. Nowadays, money remains a major player in the game of motivation but in further developing these theories, other variables have been added. Money is on peoples minds all the time; I feel that it is a great motivator. Especially for the short term. People want to be rewarded for the work that they do. And giving them a pat on the back is nice but it doesn 't put food on the table. According to Rue and Byars (1983), "motive is a stimulus that leads to an action that satisfies a need". In other words, motive produces action, and these actions will ultimately enable one to achieve his/her goals. Many times the actual work seems to be a great source of reward. But in order for a job to be effective as a source of reward it needs to posses the following characteristics: (1)Skill variety, (2) task identity (identifiable pieces of work with an also identifiable outcome), (3) task significance, autonomy (a certain freedom in schedule in order to make work more enjoyable, and (4) job feedback (one should be able to evaluate his/her performance



References: Ames, C. & Ames, R. (1989). Research in Motivation in Education, Vol 3. San Diego: Academic Press. Keller, J. (1983). Motivational design of instruction. In C. Riegeluth (ed.), Instructional Design Theories and Models. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Malone, T. (1981). Towards a theory of instrinsically motivating instruction. Cognitive Science, 4, 333-369. Weiner, B. (1986). An Attribution Theory of Motivation and Emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag. Hull, C. (1943). Principles of Behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Hull, C. et al. (1940). Mathematico-Deductive Theory of Rote Learning. New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press. Tolman, E.C. (1932). Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

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