A_Plan_Fr_Positive_Influence

| A Plan For Positive Influence | | | July12th, 2010 LDR/531Michael Plesko | | | One of the many challenges that managers face in the workplace deals with motivating employees, while simultaneously maintaining job satisfaction and performance. In today’s diverse working environment managers often have to be skilled when it comes to implementing innovative ways to improve employee morale, while motivating and encouraging performance and job satisfaction. According to John Honore (2009) Motivation represents the forces acting on or within a person that causes the person to behave in a specific, goal directed manner. (Honore, 2009 pp 63) Every individual is motivated by a number of external and internal factors, and it is these factors that direct their performance, job satisfaction and motivation while they work toward the end goal. The work begins when we as managers attempt to uncover those intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence behavior so that we are able to then use those motivators to encourage and promote employees to perform at their best. This is where a good positive influence plan comes in, in that these plans can be created to aid in building and improving motivation, satisfaction and performance in the workplace. These plans can be integrated into the workplace by conducting motivational team building sessions, employee surveys, and incorporating extrinsic rewards like direct and indirect compensation plans and rewards systems. A good positive influence plan will seek to not only motivate employees, but it will help them better understand their value within the organization and encourage them to perform. One of the biggest challenges manages face is managing employees with diverse backgrounds, work experiences, and personalities. When assigning projects, or task for a group of individuals to complete as a cohesive unit, it is often difficult because each individual within the group is motivated by different factors, and this can cause them to not perform as well as another employee, or not be satisfied with certain aspects of the assigned task. Learning Team C is composed of five (5) individuals from various backgrounds whom all bring with them a varying interest, personal values and personalities to the group setting. Based on the results/scores from the three assessments that we completed, which included the DISC Assessment (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conciencetious), the Emotional Intelligence assessment, and the Values and Attitudes Insights Assessments, we all have varying degrees of values, attitudes, social strengths, social weaknesses, and insights. The results of the three showed that many of the team members have varying degrees of job satisfaction, some fall well below the average/median for that particular assessment, while some are far above the average, one team member even scored 100 out of 100. This shows that each individual in the group may not be satisfied with their current job, and this could lead to some tension when it comes to job performance, and motivating those who are not satisfied to get projects completed. With that being said, some team members may need extra motivation, extrinsic rewards, and incentive to perform at the standards set for the team. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, but the easiest way to to focus on the individual, and their personal motivators. Honore (2009) noted that “there are several sources of motivational needs […] some of these sources are: * Spiritual-understanding ones purpose in life. * Cognitive-problem solving and decision making abilities * Behavioral- reaction to stimulation * External-related to behavioral * Affective-relates to self esteem (enhance feeling good and reduce feeling bad about oneself) * Social-the need to interact with other individuals * Biological-bodies needs or taste” (Hanore, 2009 pp 64) These findings are consistent with the results of the “what do I value” portion of the Values and Attitudes, Insights assessment. What the results show is that many of the team members strongly value “spiritual understanding” and “happiness and life understanding”, with that being said it is important for employers to be sensitive to an individual’s need for assurance about life, and their pursuit for happiness in life. This can be accomplished through team building activities that involve setting goals, life planning, and personal and professional development. This can also be achieved by incorporating work –life balance programs that place emphasis on balancing work and home life and how one can achieve happiness and success in both arenas. When it comes to job satisfaction and performance, it has been noted by Robbins and Judge (2007) that “[…] happy workers are more likely to be productive workers” (Robbins and Judge, 2007 pp 90) Job satisfaction is inextricably linked to job performance, therefore if a manager of an organization wants to increase job productivity and performance, they must first increase job satisfaction. One of the results from the assessments that Learning Team C completed showed that many of the team members were not very involved in their current job, meaning that they felt emotionally detached from their profession and job. This can be bad for performance because they do not value their work. Resources: Honore, J. (2009). Employee Motivation. The Consortium Journal , 14 (1). Robbins, S. P., & Timothy, A. J. (2007). Organizational Behavior. Prentice Hall.