Organizational Behaviour: Motivation and Group Dynamics
Purpose
This assignment will allow you to apply concepts of organizational behavior, specific to motivation theories and group dynamics.
Using your experiences and knowledge of a workplace or organization where you have worked, volunteered or are quite familiar, read through and answer the following scenarios and questions.
There are two parts to this assignment. Carefully read the instructions below
Part 1
Overview:
Motivation describes the energizing forces influencing an effort’s direction, intensity, and persistence. It is a complex interaction between the individual and the environment. Daniel H. Pink states in his 2009 TedTalk “The Puzzle of Motivation” that the incentives we believe work the best, extrinsic rewards like bonuses or other financial rewards may not motivate employees to think creatively or perform at their best.
In fact, he suggests that this extrinsic approach may do more harm than good! Instead, he indicates that employers should consider a new approach, encouraging intrinsic motivation. Daniel Pink (2009) described intrinsic motivation as “… the desire to do things because they matter because we like it, they’re interesting, or part of something important.”
He proposes the three elements of intrinsic motivation in the workplace are:
Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives
Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters
Purpose: to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves
Answer the following:
Your manager has asked you to design a motivational strategy your organization could use to motivate you. There are no restrictions on what kind of a strategy you may use (theory, model, hybrid of different types); however, financial rewards are limited. Consider the following questions when designing your strategy.
What do you value? What matters to you?
What resources will you need?
What barriers might you encounter?
Will you incorporate all or some of Pink’s three elements? How?
Part 2
Nelson (2019) defines a team as a type of group that:
is composed of people with complementary skills;
exists to accomplish a goal;
includes members who work interdependently,;
holds each other mutually accountable for their performance.
Answer the following:
Think about a successful team of which you have been a member. What made this team successful? Then, think about an unsuccessful team of which you have been a member.
What made this team unsuccessful? Now, iimagine you were put in charge of developing a self-managed workplace team that would be working on a year-long project. First, briefly define the project (be concise and clear). Then, answer the questions below.
What personal characteristics or competencies do you think the individual members of the team should possess? How do these characteristics or competencies contribute to the team’s success?
What are the most important norms of behaviour you would want to develop? How do these norms of behaviour contribute to the team’s success?
How would you establish these norms?
How would you avoid some of the common team-related issues like loafing, group think, and group polarization?