Project Team Management – Employee Motivation

Project Team Management – Employee Motivation

Irrespective of the project being undertaken and the qualifications of the team members, motivation is a critical factor that determines the productivity of the team and their ability to deliver the required results. A highly motivated team is often enthusiastic, determined, and focused despite the available challenges. An individual equally ought to be motivated to achieve their personal goals, have job satisfaction, and enhance individual development, just like a team.  Like Al Waysright, many people occasional desire to experience high levels of motivation at their workplace and a slight drop in their morale due to the prevailing negative environment could adversely affect their job satisfaction and personal development.

Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Al Waysright was at the level of self-actualization while he was working under his old boss, Ivar Kontract. He was motivated to develop his abilities and realize his full potential, given the supportive environment that was provided by his boss. However, after transitioning to Metallico and assigned to work under Win Easily, his motivation level significantly dropped to the extent that he found himself struggling to develop his self-esteem. The new boss, although knew much about their projects, would not give the team members a chance to provide their views and prospective solutions to isolated problems. By giving them answers to every question, Mr. Win denied the team an opportunity to learn new ideas.

As a simplified version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the ERG theory of motivation specifies existence, relatedness, and growth as the three critical requirements that every employee would attempt to satisfy. In line with this theory, we can conclude that Al Waysright was denied two of the three basic needs. He was neither given a chance to socialize and interact with his boss, Mr. Win, nor provided the support that he required for his personal growth on his job. Rather than being left out to implement his discovered solutions and make mistakes along the way, his boss provided the answer to every problem, hence denied him the opportunity to learn and grow.

Like his former boss, who provided the team with the chance to solve problems and discover new insights on their own, Al Waysright thought that Mr. Win, his new manager, would equally be helpful to promote his growth. No wonder he started his duties enthusiastically and with an enormous psyche. Not so long, he was quickly unmotivated when he noted that his new manager had little interest in promoting the growth of his subordinates. This behavior demonstrated by Al Waysright corresponds to the suggestions made by Herzberg’s motivation theory. According to the theory, an individual is often motivated by the desire to avoid discomfort and unpleasantness, and the need to achieve personal development.

Equity theory can equally be used to relate to the circumstances surrounding Waysright’s motivation issues. According to the theory, motivation is promoted by fair and just practices within the employment setting. Employees would often strive to reach their perceived equity by adjusting their inputs to merge those of their reference groups. However, whenever equity is not embraced, as it is the case at Metallico, the respective employees get unmotivated and fail to positively adjust their inputs. Al Waysright is an ideal example of such employees that may lose interest in their job due to the failure by the management to recognize their efforts.

Vroom expectancy theory is based on three fundamental factors: effort, performance, and motivation. The relationship between these three variables is a direct one. An increase in the effort would lead to a corresponding increase in production, and the two depend on the level of motivation received by the employee. Despite Waysright having put more effort into his work, the failure of his boss to recognize his contribution unmotivated him, which eventually lead to underperformance?

All the five theories that have been used to explain the issues surrounding the motivation problems affecting Waysright have typically indicated that motivation is a critical factor that management should often consider. It has the ability to develop an employee and well as to ruin their success.

References

Lee, M. T. & Raschke, R. L. (2016). Understanding employee motivation and organizational performance: Arguments for a set-theoretic approach. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 1(3), 162-169.