Motivational Theories

Describe the motivational theories, team based management and different types of teams.

Job satisfaction, motivation, and reward are the different components of organizational behavior. Reward and the job satisfaction lead towards the motivation. In this way, motivation overlaps the other two i.e. Reward and job satisfaction. Motivation is a significant factor; every organization needs to have a focused approached about it as it is directly linked to job satisfaction (NAFZIGER, 2010). Maslow’s need hierarchy theory is mainly a motivational theory that talks about the needs of a human being driving human behavior. It is a human behavior that a person struggles for one need. After the achievement of the first one, he runs for the second needle.

Maslow’s theory does not believe that a person concentrates on a special need while it believes a particular need that derives the behavior of human being. Maslow’s theory described the various levels of motivation and the orders to achieve those levels. Maslow’s theory is dependent on the five stages of needs. The deficiency of these needs always motivates people, especially when they are not met. These five stages are:

Physiological needs: These are the basic requirements for a human body. The human body cannot survive in the world if these requirements are not achieved. It includes the basic things to survive like air, water, shelter, and food, warmth, slept. It is crystal clear in the case study that this cannot be the reason for the dissatisfaction of Wilkerson.

Safety needs: Maslow’s theory explicates the need in the hierarchy. After biological and physiological needs, it comes the safety net.  Safety needs include the safety from war, natural disaster, violence in the family, etc. (Sachau, 2007). It consists the protection from law, stability and job security. Assistant Professor Wilkerson is not at all facing the job insecurity. She is quite secure regarding her job.  So the dissatisfaction lies in their mind is not due to this safety needs.

Social need:  After the basic needs and safety need the human nature needs the social needs of his day to day life. The next level of the human being is the socialite. The feelings of owning the relations are a motivational factor for individuals. It may include friendship,   love and affection from peers, friends, family members, etc. In the given case study professor is quite satisfied with her peer’s behavior for her. Mr. Ron Agua is friendly with her, and he invited her to join him.

Maslow’s Theory

Esteem Needs: Maslow’s fourth need is self-explanatory. What do we think about ourselves?  The esteem needs reflects our confidence. The feeling of positivism for us always leads to motivation in one’s life. Status, Independency, Achievement, respect, dominance, and prestige form the self-esteem. We participate in the various activities either professionally or personally that provides us a sense of achievement and appreciation. This thing further leads to the motivation to the nature of the job. Self-esteem is the factor that is a cause of dissatisfaction in the Professor mind (Fombona, Rodríguez, and Sevillano, 2013). She was not interested in involving herself in the activities apart from the teaching as Mr. Ron was performing. In spite of the fact that both of them have joined, equally, still her peer got the more recognition and appreciation as compare to Wilkerson. The reason behind this is not the gender discrimination. While the reason is the self-esteem, In other words, it is self-confidence. She did not explore herself to such extent in her professional life. She was not even aware of the fact that how the department actually works. She just kept herself busy in the academics. On the other hand, her peer took part in the outside activities and got rewarded and remuneration, appreciation (Best et al., 2008). These all motivating factor regarding of monitory and non-monitory was missing in her professional life. That is the reason she was feeling dissatisfaction with her job. Thus, the fourth stage of the Abraham Maslow’s theory was the cause of Wilkerson’s dissatisfaction.

Self-Actualization needs: The realization of the potential of the individual is mainly self-actualization. It consist the willingness of personal growth and gains the experiences. At this stage of hierarchy, money matters very less to the individual (Pegler, 2012).

Mr. Ron was very near to this stage while Wilkerson was stuck in the previous stage self-esteem. She just needs to explore herself to enjoy her job culture. Hence, in the Maslow’s hierarchy theory it is very clearly mentioned that to achieve the needs, one should not only possess the earlier need (Harvard, 2010). Apart from this one has to be the master in that. The theory teaches that these needs are attainable only step by step. One cannot jump into the last one without having the experience of the previous one.

Vroom’s Expectancy theory is quite different from Maslow’s need hierarchy theory. Maslow’s theory talks about the link between the internal needs and efforts. Vroom’s expectancy theory bifurcate the three performances, outcomes, and efforts.  The theory believes that behavior of a person derived from the appropriate choices among available alternatives. The purpose of the same is to maximize the comfort level and minimize the pain (Park, 2011). Vroom states that an employee performance always depends upon his individual capabilities, knowledge, experience and skills. It never derives from the need that is required for an individual. The Theory further explains that motivation, performance, and efforts are directly linked with an individual motivation. The theory is primarily based on expectancy, valence. and instrumentality.

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

Expectancy: Expectancy is a kind of faith in Wilkerson’s mind that the better efforts will lead to the better results. In the case study, Wilkerson was thinking that she could also go for the same thing as her colleague did (Parast and Adams, 2004). Consequently, he got the appreciation and fame. Expectancy in her mental state was affected by the facts that she as an individual possessed the skills to perform her duties very well, all the resources required for the adequate performance was available to her. The peers in her job are very supportive of her. Apart from this, she was also familiar with the information that is required to fulfill her job.

Instrumentality:  It is again a trust that if an employee does well, then he will be able to achieve the valuable outcome. In the case study, same is happening with Wilkerson’s colleague Mr. Ron. She does think that it could only happen because his efforts were better than her. He had the clear understanding of the department. How their department functions (Supplemental Material for Motivation Sharpens Exogenous Spatial Attention, 2014). She was still unknown with the various facts about the department. Mr. Ron had the transparency in the system, and that only helped him for the better results. He knew his department inside and out. Mr. Ron thought out of the box. Instead of being restricted to teaching, he adopted his participation in extra activities. Finally, he was appreciated for the same.

Valence: Valence importance for an individual regarding the expected results. For example, in the case study Assistant professor had a will for the appreciation and the compensation. This is the valence. The person must try to achieve his desired outcomes to fulfill his wish (Taormina and Gao, 2013). It varies from person to person. It mainly depends on the individual goals, needs, values, and motivation. This is not to be considered as the real satisfaction but this is only the expected satisfaction, of the desired outcome. If she could do just like as her colleague. She could also have the best compensation and appreciation.

These three elements are clearly defined in Vroom’s expectancy theory by:

Effort- performance expectancy- (E>P Expectancy): The theory believes that the efforts of the person lead to the desired expectancy (Gander, 2006). In the given case study, Professor had a statement that if she could do better, she could earn better. That means that she could fulfill her expectations due to her efforts in the job. The Effort performance expectancy shows that the efforts are always greater than the expectancy.

Team-Based Management

Performance-Outcome expectancy (P>O expectancy): The performance is the way to the outcomes. If the performance is low, the outcome will be low. If the performance of an individual is good, then the results will always be better. Mr. Ron had a better performance in his job than Wilkerson. That is the only reason he got a better outcome than her.

Vroom’s expectancy theory moves on perceptions. If an employer thinks that in the organization each and every thing is favorable for the employees. The outcomes can never be less. It is not 100 percent true (Friedrich, 2013). The employee motivation is as important as the environment. In the case study working environment is same for the both characters, but still Mr. Ron grew up better than Wilkerson. It was all just the game of motivation in the employee mind. The employer should be aware of  the expectations of the employee from its organization. This will help the employer to motivate the staff of the organization. Motivation varies from person to person. Some may get motivated by money; others may get motivated by appreciation. That’s why it is important for a company to satisfy its employees as per their expectations from their respective jobs.

Alex, the owner of the company who bought the company five years ago, now wants to mold the management into a team-based management. The organization setup is systematically divided into the division. He also had a vice president for each division. Still the extracted results are not up to the mark. That is why he is willing to transform the organization into a team-based management. Several steps are included in the creation of team effectiveness. These are context, composition, work design, and process. The context is basically to help the team performance.

The factors which assist in the team performance are the adequate resources, the effectiveness of leadership and structure, the environment of trust among the team members, and the evaluation of the team members and at last the reward and remuneration (Blazovich, 2013).  The adequate resource is very important for Alex as it contains the systematic equipment, information, encouragement, staffing and assistance and assistance administrative. Each and every member of the team should know that they are responsible for their job work that is being assigned to them. To make the employees responsible, the structure and leadership are important. Apart from this, every employee should trust on each other without taking undue advantage of the trust. That is how the trust climate plays the role in team effectiveness.

Different Types of Teams

The evaluation of the employees is very important to know that how the employees are performing individually. Alex should keep one thing in mind that rewards should be given only to the groups.  So that the team members come to know that if they worked as a team, then they will grow into their team and will achieve success as a team. The composition is the staffing of the teams. It helps the leaders to staff their teams (P.VIDYA and MAHESWARI, 2011). The composition is based on the seven categories. It contains the abilities of team members, the personality of the employees, the allocation of the roles, the team size, diversity, the preference and the flexibility in the team members. The ability of the team members throws light on the ability, skill and knowledge of an individual employee. The expertise in the technology, the capacity to solve the issues, intellectual skills and decision making power decide the effectiveness of an individual. If anybody possesses all the three, he would be proven as beneficial for the team. The personality of the person reflects the behavior of the person. The confidence is essential for a team member, but arrogance is very harmful to work in a team. In this way, Alex can manage a very strong team (Jiang and Wang, 2014). Team leaders should have the knowledge of the strength and weakness of the individuals. This would help them in deciding that who will be suitable in which place. To right positioning in the team allocation of the roles have a significant role. Diversity means the different type of employees. It may be regarding gender, education, experience, age, territory, specialization, etc.

If there is diversity in a team, the team would be very effective as everybody is different from other. Everyone would be able to give innovative ideas as per his experience, specialization (Puck and Pregernig, 2014). The size of the team is important because a big team is always more successful than a smaller one. The flexibility in member means that everyone in team should be trained to others task. So that team would be able to perform even in the absence of a few members. The preference of the member is essential to make the employees feel about the importance they are carrying in their team. Rework design includes the effective teams that work together to complete the tasks assigned to them. The reworked design is categorized in the variety of skills, the identity of the task, and the significance of the task. A team is formed with different members that possess the different skills in themselves, what are the importance and the identity of the task of the organization that they are performing as a team. The Process is also categorized into five categories to help the team effectiveness.

These are the specific goals, common purpose, conflicts level, the efficacy of team and social loafing. The common purpose of the team is to achieve the goals for the growth of the company (Bartholow, 2006). Specific goals are described when the team is working with their specific ideas to achieve the particular mission. Team efficacy reflects the confidence of the team because if the team is confident it will surely succeed. The conflict level is very common with the team. It was just at the time when every member does not agree with somebody’s idea, but they can understand the point of view of the team member (Monthatipkul, Das, and Yenradee, 2010). They can work together as a team to achieve the goal. The task conflict means that they try to solve their conflicts to accomplish the task instead of being stuck in the thoughts of the group. Social loafing has a negative effect on the team. It may be the cause for an individual to rise without putting his efforts in the team equally as other members have contributed to attaining the target for the company. These are the points Alex should consider while forming the team-based management in the organization (Zhang et al., 2015).

Large companies take the help of the teams for the benefit of the company. Teams are formed with the individuals who work together in unity with the innovative ideas to fulfill the goal of a company. Teams are always beneficial for the company. There are several teams in an organization (Cacioppe and Stace, 2009). Teams are formed for several reasons to support the company in need. They are established in different ways. In a company, there are managers and employees who assure that the company will achieve the success and excellence.

The selection of the team members is very crucial for a manager. Each team works for a specific goal. The teams are expert in their own area. All the teams participate with their expert ideas for the proposal of growth for the company. There are different kinds of team. The four types of the teams are Problem Solving Team, self-managed team, Cross-functional team and virtual team. Problem solving team is self-explanatory from its name. It works together to find out the various methods for the improvement of the work culture (Fitch and Ravlin, 2004). It has the feasible solutions to enhance the morale of an employee. This type of team is carrying positivism in itself. Self-managed teams were the very organized teams. This type of team performs the tasks in a planned way. The duties and responsibilities are assigned to the individuals. Performances of the employees are monitored in the self- managed teams.

 The individuals who possess the experience in the same area gather together and form a team to share their views, thoughts and new idea to fulfill the organization needs. This kind of formation of the team is Cross functional teams. Virtual teams are also formed by individuals who work as a team, but they worked with the help of technology i.e. email, the internet, webcam, etc. (Forte, 2009). The only difference between the cross-functional and the virtual team is the technology.

 The Virtual team works with the help of technology, but Cross-functional team works together in a traditional way. In the creation and management of the effective team management, I will suggest Alex to choose the Cross-functional team. This will be more beneficial for the Alex’s company as all has the same kind of work experience in their specific work areas. Alex can easily increase the profitability and problem solving with the help of the cross functional team. Members of the team must be multitasking and responsible for their respective team work.

Conclusion:

I would suggest Alex to form a team with a marketing and advertisement head, Distribution head, Operation Head, and Human Resource head. Marketing and distribution head would be performing the duties related to the advertisement of the products in the nearby small towns (Loo and Loewen, 2003). The catalog printing, the distribution would be the prime duty of the marketing head. He would be coming up with the new ideas for the promotion of the product. The distribution head would be responsible for the supply chain management. He would be taking care of the distribution of the product basically in a customer’s hand. The operation department would take care of the availability of the product. Apart from that, all the finance related issues the payments and the receiving would be taking care by operations manager (Molleman, 2005). The Human Resource Head would be responsible for the needs of human resources working in the company. Employees are the root of the company. The employee satisfaction is the foremost thing. In this way, all the heads are expert in their each segment and will help Alex to maximize his profits. Alex as an owner of the company has always dreamt for the success of the company. The cross-functional team would help Alex to fulfill his dream.

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