“JAY AND MICHELLE”
(A Case Study On Motivation)

THE CONCEPT OF MOTIVATED BEHAVIOUR
 Motivation is a theoretical concept used to explain behaviour. It explains the reasons for people's actions, desires, and needs. Motivation can also be defined as an individuals direction to behaviour or what causes a person to want to repeat a behaviour and vice versa (Greenberg, 1999).
 This paper will be focusing on the behaviour and motivation of two people named Jay and Michelle. They were both newly hired professionals at SlimLine Company — a company that produces recliners — who needed young engineers to innovate their stagnant ideas in their facility in Cavite. In this paper, differences on how Jay and Michelle make their decisions and opinions will be presented accompanied by the theoretical constructs of motivation.
 This paper will be presenting Jay and Michelle’s motivated behaviour in (a) deciding to accept job, (b) reactions to training program, (c) satisfaction with job of Jay, and (d) satisfaction with job and continued education of Michelle. At the end of this paper, Jay and Michelle’s case will be taken into consideration in discussing the inferences that can be made from the (a) interaction between personality and the individual system, and the (b) interaction between personality and the formal organisation.

A. Decision to Accept Job

Decision making and motivation are interdependent and mutually influencing. Decision making is a process which affects the motivation of the decision maker while motivation underlies what a decision maker choose to do or not to do (Pohankova, 2010). We can relate Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory as to why Jay and Michelle both accepted the employment offered by SimLine. Jay can be classified in the lower order where physiological and safety needs are important while Michelle can be classified in the higher order where social, esteem and self actualisation are important (Robbins, 2003). Jay, being sensitive about what his father underwent as a maintenance worker, values his family a lot. He is responsible enough to shoulder his father’s role in the family as he nears his retirement. His main motivation is to earn an income that could support his and his family’s needs. He also chose to work at SlimLine Company since Cavite is where he lives and it is very convenient for him to look after his family while working.
 Michelle’s character on the other hand, shows leadership and her motivation is for exposure to many different aspects of the organisation. She was seeking for a job where she can continue to utilise here creativeness as an independent woman who has a great characteristic to lead. She chose the said company because of the opening in management training in which she can offer much of her experienced spearheading ability.

B. Reaction to Training Program

Both individuals might have seen a promising job as to meeting their expectations. However, they had contrasting reactions to the training program that they both experienced at the company. Jay was very positive saying that the program was beneficial to him. He also mentioned that he learned a lot from the different departments and he enjoyed doing his work with good salary, benefits and pension plans. On the other hand, Michelle had negative insights saying that the company is not open in generating new ideas. She even mentioned that the company has no room for advancement because of its archaic system. Following several theories on motivation, there are a few similarities and numerous differences that can be spotted between Jay and Michelle’s different response to their training program.

COMBINED LIST OF MOTIVATION THEORIES FROM ROBBINS (2003) AND DAFT (2005).

As shown in the table, it is evident that Michelle has a stronger character and behaviour than Jay. The latter’s reaction to the training program reflects his personality as an introvert person who accepts responsibilities as provided by others. During his training, Jay obediently followed orders of transfer from one department to another without voicing out any disagreement. Most of the changes happening around him was considered influential for his growth and knowledge as a member of the company. He works for work and works to live. His main concern was that he was doing his job accordingly and it is enough to pay for his needs. Unlike Jay, Michelle reacted negatively to the training because she was used to leading people in her different affiliations (example: sorority, newspaper, and religious group). Though working under a company, Michelle was not scared to deliver her concerns and creativity for the company’s advancement. However, having some rules, like receiving an order from a respective authority in the company, made her feel restricted and unhappy. Having a growth as a leader in her society, she took orders and comments as expressions of disagreement.

C. Satisfaction with Job (Jay) Looking back at the table presented earlier, it is clear that the company was able to meet his intrinsic needs — advancement, recognition, responsibility, growth and achievement (Robbins, 2003)). The company was able to provide a good salary, benefits and pension plan that Jay can enjoy with his family. Jay’s motivation to financially assist his family makes him adopt with whatever changes or rotations happening at SlimLine Company. He is willing to adjust as long as the company is able to meet his main motivation, which is his value to sustain a good living for his family.


D. Satisfaction of Job and Continued Education (Michelle)

Following Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, dissatisfaction happens when individuals are restricted with some policies, supervision, relationships, work condition and more (Daft, 2005). In Michelle’s situation, her strong personality crashed when her ideas were not recognised in the company, making her feel unaccomplished. Her feeling of dissatisfaction elevated when she did not receive any favourable comment in her effort to lead the Quality Control Department when the manager had a heart attack. Her motivation to work declined as her expectations from the company were not met. Being born independent and a leader, Michelle’s self-efficacy (Robbins, 2003) shifted to education. Since she believes that she is capable of doing more but cannot do it at work due to low motivation, she decided to continue and increase her loads at her Masters Degree program in UPLB—MSD. This behaviour is obviously covering what she cannot deliver at SlimLine. Michelle’s decision to take more loads during her frustration at work reflects her desire for personal development and social motivation, where she may feel more accepted in school than at work.

PERSONALITY, INDIVIDUAL SYSTEM AND FORMAL ORGANISATION

Considering the case of Jay and Michelle, there are inferences that can be made from the interaction between personality and the individual system, and between the personality and the formal organisation.

Interaction Between Personality and the Individual System

Personality has to do with individual among people in behaviour patterns, cognition and emotion. In this section let me use the Big Five Model (Robbins, 2003) to check Jay and Mishelle’s personality and how it would reflect to their individuality.

BIG FIVE MODEL (Robbins, 2003)

There is a big implication between each factor and and individual’s performance. Both Jay and Michelle are conscientious and open to experience. Conscientiousness made the two individuals get in the company. The vice-president of SlimLine, Tomas Gil, was impressed with both persons due to their good records and high performances from school. In terms of openness to experience, Jay took the reassignment from different departments at the company as a way to improve himself and for gaining more knowledge about the industry while Michelle took it as an opportunity for exposure to many different aspects of the organisation’s operations over a short period of time. For the differences, Michelle’s extroversion gave her a lot of chances to speak out her thoughts and ideas for the company’s development. She had a problem agreeing with other opinions and comments, especially on her actions. This lead to some unstable emotional stability which made her lose trust and motivation to work for SlimLine.
 Jay, being an introvert makes him agreeable in any project assignment given to him. This was evident when he was just taking orders and work as instructed. He did not speak of his opinion when not asked. He is also emotional stable and does not care of other factors. The most important thing for him is keeping his motivation that gets him working continuously.
 Having more check on Jay’s column, he is more satisfied with his work than of Michelle. This might mean that since Jay is more satisfied, he may keep his job and stay longer with SlimLine Company. People have many different views of the world that affect their personalities. When a situation arises, an individual will handle it based upon his or her personal values, beliefs, and personality traits. These traits are developed throughout a person's lifetime and cannot be easily changed, so it is helpful, in a management perspective, to attempt understanding differences rather avoiding it.

Interaction Between Personality and Formal Organisation

Personality plays a key role in a formal organisation because the way people think and behave affects many aspects of the workplace. People's personalities influence their behaviour in groups, their attitudes, and the way they make decisions. Interpersonal skills hugely affect the way that people act and react to things during work. In organisation, personality also affects such things as motivation, leadership, performance, and conflict (Robbins & Decenzo, 2001). Considering Jay for instance, he may be doing his best at work but being an introvert makes other people have a different view of him. His co-workers might not be even aware of his excellence since he is not into interaction. If he will keep himself timid and work seriously without considering his socials in the work environment, he will not be able to extend his capabilities as he cannot motivate other people to work like him in their workplace. Michelle’s strong personality on the other side is great. She is visible and can be motivating. However, not being able to accept corrections and working at her own decision can affect the company as well. If she keeps interfering with other people’s work her leadership will decline and conflicts are to arise at most times. Traits such as openness, emotional stability, and agreeableness as mentioned earlier can predict that an individual will have less conflict, work better in teams, and have positive attitudes about his or her work (Robbins, 2003). People with this type of personality should be placed in an organisational situations where they would be working with or leading others. Those who do not have these traits will have less motivation and be more negative when they are placed in the wrong situation in the company. If leaders will understand differences like that of Jay and Michelle, the better equipped they are to be effective in accomplishing their goals. 


CONCLUSION

In a company like SlimLike, understanding its people, and their differences (like of Jay and Michelle) is as important to a company as understanding its operations and processes. With this, it is not enough to focus on the applicants’ school records and performance. It is not an assurance that when a person is academically intellectual, everything would be perfect upon hiring that person. Understanding what personality components that drive the behaviour of employees is a highly useful information for companies’ management that can be used to determine what type of assignments should be set, how motivation should be pursued, what team dynamics may arise, and how to best approach conflict and praise when applicable. When successful, job satisfaction comes with significant organisational outcomes like productivity and efficiency.

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REFERENCES:

Daft, R.L. (2005). Management. Singapore: Thompson Learning Asia.

Greenberg, J. (1999). Managing Behaviour in an Organisation. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Pohankova, A. (2010). Motivation and Decision Making Process in Managing Change Within the Organization. Slovak Republic. Retrieved May 15, 2015 from http://frcatel.fri.uniza.sk/hrme/ files/2010/2010_2_10.pdf Robbins, S.P. (2003). Organizational Behavior. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Robbins, S. P. & Decenzo, D. A. (2001). Fundamentals of Management . New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall.