Motivational_Plan

The greatest challenge that managers face today is motivating their employees. It doesn’t matter if you have two employees or two hundred employees; the task of finding ways to motivate each employee is often difficult! Is there one specific motivational theory to follow for all employees' Normally each employee will be motivated in a different way and the responsibility of the manager is to determine how their employees can become motivated and stay motivated to produce the highest results for the company. Recently at Riordan Manufacturing we had three employees take a series of assessments to give us a better understanding of their characteristics. Through these assessments we were about to find out a summary of their individual characteristics, develop a motivational strategy and action plan, and relate the plan to a relevant theory, all of which will guide our management team in motivating these employees. The first employee to take the assessments was Alberto Padilla who is a truck driver for our manufacturing plant. Through the evaluations we were able to see that Alberto has a several issues that are important and wise for our management team to work through to help him and our company. Alberto does not seem engaged in his work which can lead to poor performance on the job. His job satisfaction score was very low which indicated he does not like the job that he does, but he does like to train or help other people. The highest result of the assessments was that Alberto is a great decision maker and tends to take his time but still make wise, timely decisions. With these characteristics our strategy is to get Alberto more involved in his job and his goals for his career. Another strategy is allowing Alberto to be more flexible with his work hours and make more decisions on his own. In order to carry out these strategies our action plan is to first take time to talk with Alberto and come up with a monthly goal that he will try to achieve. Because Alberto has no job satisfaction we feel that offering a monthly bonus that is linked to his job performance on the monthly goal will highly motivate Alberto. We also want to introduce Alberto to our job rotation and job sharing plan which will allow Alberto the chance to learn other job duties and teach other employees his job responsibilities (Robbins & Judge, p.246, 2011). “The self-determination theory proposes that people prefer to feel that they have control over their actions” (Robbins & Judge, p.211, 2011). This theory relates to our action plan with Alberto because we will be able to allow him to set his own goals, and determine his own work schedule which gives him more control over his job. Allowing him to be more involved will likely increase his production because he feels that he has control over his actions. Susie Avant is a receptionist at our corporate office and has been with the company a long time. She has a positive attitude and enjoys helping other people all the time. She is highly engaged and highly motivated which lead to her high work ethics and strong performance. She is not a good decision maker because she tends to take her time and think things through which causes the company valuable time. Our motivational strategy for Susie would be to challenge her through setting higher goals and expectations. We would want to make sure she knows what a great asset she is to our company and challenge her to increase in certain areas. Our action plan does not involve any management training but we do want to get her into our employee involvement program. This program would allow her to help others in our community and represent our company name while she is helping others. This not only allows her to be in her comfort zone, helping others, but motivates her because she is representing our company and feels good about herself. The goal setting theory can be used for many reasons, but our reason for following this theory is strictly for producing higher outcomes. “Specific goals produce a higher level of output than does the generalized goal of do your best” (Robbins & Judge, p.214, 2011). By setting a high goal with specific expectations we feel that Susie will be motivated to obtain these high goals and even go beyond the expectations. Our last employee to complete the assessments was Troy Avant. Troy is a recent college graduation who has worked with our company for three years, mainly while attending school. Through the assessments our management team was able to learn that Troy is not satisfied with his current job and not engaged in his current job level. He likes to manage other people and is a good decision maker. His positive attitude and emotions were his high point on these assessments. Because Troy exhibits qualities that we look for in managers that we hire to supervise our stores it is important that we immediately recognize his interest in the management field. Our motivational strategy is to challenge Troy with new job responsibilities and to have him begin in the participative management program. “The one-on-one style of coaching focuses on developing individuals, showing them how to improve their performance, and helping to connect their goals with the goals of the organization” (“Leadership Style”, 2007). Through this action plan he will gain training and be able to manage a few employees which will allow him to feel as though he is moving up. We do not want to lose an employee who has completed their college degree and is motivated to move up within the company! The self-efficacy theory is the belief a person has that they are capable of doing a specific job or task (Robbins & Judge, p.217, 2011). Because we will be challenging Troy with these new responsibilities but also giving him positive feedback and encouragement we feel that he will believe he is capable of becoming a manager. This motivation technique will allow him to produce results for the company, gain knowledge and training to move into a management position, as well as keep a talented employee in our organization. Victor Lipman, a contributor for Forbes magazine said it perfect: “Often of course it’s just the gesture of recognition, showing that hard work is appreciated, that makes the biggest difference” (Lipman, 2012). This shows that all employees are motivated differently because some like the pat on the back, some like the extra cash, and others want to advance in the company. As a manager the most important responsibility you have to your company and stock holders is to find what motivates each employee so they are producing the highest results possible. Reference Leadership Styles. The Wall Street Journal, (2007), . Retrieved from http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/how-to-develop-a-leadership-style/ Lipman, Victor. (2012, May). How to Motivate Employees with 'Outside the Box' Thinking. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2012/03/16/how-to-motivate-employees-with-outside-the-box-thinking/ Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational Behavior (14th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.