Employee Motivation Action Plan
MGT/311
University of Phoenix
September 29, 2014
Scott Jaeger
Professor Julie Morgan University of Phoenix Material

Employee Portfolio: Motivation Action Plan

* Determine the motivational strategy or strategies that would likely be most appropriate for each of your three employees on basis of their individual characteristics. Indicate how you would leverage their employee evaluations to motivate each of the three employees. Describe one or more of the motivational theories and explain how the theories connect to each of your selected motivational strategies.

Team Member Name | Summary of Individual Characteristics | Motivational Strategy and Action Plan | Relevant Theory | Jennifer | Jennifer is very dissatisfied with her job, She is dissatisfied with her management, but is very happy with her co-workers, leading to the belief that she is not being motivated properly. She is very happy in general, further confirming that belief. She is very emotionally intense, and has a high emotional intelligence score. She has a tendency to make rash decisions. | Given Jennifer’s lack of job satisfaction, specifically with management, she needs a change in motivation. Specifically, she believes that she is not being recognized for the hard work and dedication that she is putting in to the job. So Jennifer needs to be recognized for her work and achievements, to help her even out her negative other-inside experiences with the organization. Along with this, we will look in to her claims of poor management for any validity. | Equity Theory/Organizational Justice | Jim | Jim scored high in every category. He is extremely happy with his job , as well as his personal life, has a high emotional IQ, a high engagement level, is relatively emotional intense, but not high, but also a deliberate decision maker, negating the emotional intensity a bit. | Jim is happy, engaged, and emotionally intelligent. It would be a good idea to keep him happy and engaged, as happy, engaged employees are the best employees. Clearly the goals that are being set for him are challenging enough to keep him engaged, but they can also be accomplished in the time sets that are made, it should be strived for to continue at this pace. | Goal setting theory | Kaye | Kaye is also very happy with her job, as well as her personal life. She has a high emotional IQ, but, as opposed to Jim, is a little more emotionally intense. She is also a deliberate decision maker. | A lot of the same things that work with Jim, will work with Kaye. The organization should keep reinforcing her good work and attitude. It would also be in everyone’s best interest if she is getting accomplishable goals set, as that will keep her engaged, which will also help to keep her happy | Goal setting theory |

Motivation Action Plan

Motivating individual employees can be extremely tricky. What makes one-person tick, so to speak, may not work another employee doing the same job. The three employees that have been studied over the last few weeks are good examples of that. While Kaye and Jim are happy and engaged in their jobs, Jennifer is extremely unhappy with her management, while she loves her coworkers, and is otherwise happy with her personal life. Of course, with these differing personalities, there are different theories as to how to motivate these employees to make sure that they are working to the best of their ability. Jennifer Jennifer is the wild child in this motivating practice. She is very unhappy with her job, mostly due to her displeasure with management, and the way that things are run in the company. It can be construed that it is because of this displeasure that she is not fully engaged in her work. Her scores are a little more frustrating because of her extremely high satisfaction in her personal life. Since she is so emotionally intense, and intelligent, it makes sense to show her that we want to reward for a job well done, as well as honor her unhappiness with management by getting everyone together to discuss any issues that are being held against each other. There are a number of motivational theories that may apply to Jennifer, but the one that is the most obvious two are the Equity theory, and organizational justice. The equity theory, according to Robbins and Judge (2013), “Employees perceive what they get from a job situation…in relationship to what they put in to it… and then they compare their outcome-input ratio to the with that of relevant others.” There are a number of different aspects of the equity theory, but I think that Jennifer is most concerned with the other-inside, and other-outside comparisons of the theory. This means that she is comparing her experiences, rewards, etc. with others within the organization, and others in other organizations, that hold the dame position that she does, and she is unhappy with the treatment that she is getting. With that being said, the best way to motivate Jennifer is to show her that she is getting everything that she deserves, and that her hard work and skill does not go unnoticed around the organization. Once her and management get on the same page, she will become more engaged in her work, allowing her to do better work, thereby getting her more rewards, etc. With that plan in place, especially given her age, Jennifer could wind up to be one of the best employees that we have, given time of course. Of course with a emotional person like her, it may be a good idea to “personalize it,” as Nornberg (2014.) says, and ask her opinion on what she feels motivates her. Jim Jim is extremely happy with work, and he is fully engaged with the tasks that are given to him. Motivated Jim is a lot easier deal than motivating Jennifer. Setting good goals that are accomplishable, yet challenging, would be a good idea for Jim. Since he is happy, and he is engaged in the work that is being given to him, his work will continue to be top-notch until he decides that he gets bored with the tasks, or otherwise is disengaged. Another way that Jim could get disengaged would be to lose some of his overall happiness with his personal life. A way to keep him motivated here would be to, as Lipman (2013) says in Forbes; “take an genuine interest in their work-life balance.” Keep Jim at work too often, and his home life will suffer, so it is important to keep that in mind as well. It is for these reasons that the motivational theory that makes the most sense in Jim’s case is the goal-setting theory. This theory states that major goals are a big part of motivation. It would make sense for someone that is so engaged in the work that they are doing to have goals, and to stick to them, giving them satisfaction when they reach these goals. Kaye Kaye has a lot of the same characteristics as Jim does. It is for this reason that she should also have goal setting as a motivating factor. Since she is likely to remain happy as long as she remains engaged in the work that she is being tasked to. In addition to this, it would not be a bad idea to occasionally ask her how everything is going, and if she would like to try different, or more difficult tasks, since the main enemy of staying engaged is doing the same type of work every day. Keeping up with how Kaye’s morale is will also keep her motivated, and when she is happy and motivated, it can have a tendency to rub off on other employees as well. The differences between Kaye and Jim, and Jennifer are pretty drastic. Jennifer needs different kinds of motivation that Jim and Kaye do. The differences in employees can make motivated an entire office very difficult, but if management has the right information, they can effectively pick the correct style and motivate different employees in different ways, making the entire organization a better place to work at.

References

Lipman, Victor. (2013.). 5 easy ways to motivate - and demotivate - employees. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/03/18/5-easy-ways-to-motivate-and-demotivate-employees/

Nornberg, Vanessa M. (2014.). 5 effective & genuine techniques to motivate employees. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/vanessa-merit-nornberg/employee-motivation-effective-genuine-techniques.html

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.