Psy 320 - Motivational Concepts

Motivational Concepts

PSY/320

November 13, 2013

Clinton Payne

Motivational Concepts

The driving force behind most things in life is the motivation to get them done. Setting goals and making plans to achieve obstacles in life are all a part of motivation. In regards to the reading, I will describe how Hull’s drive theory will work in two different workplace scenarios from my personal experience. Hull’s drive theory had one outstanding feature that no motivation theory before it had ever possessed—namely, motivation could be predicted before it occurred (Reeve, 2009). Having drive gives a person energy to accomplish goals while showing the habits and behaviors associated with doing so. Once a person figures out what needs to happen to achieve that goal, they can enforce it and hope to see a reward in the end whether it for professional progress or personal.

When dealing with workplace experience, employees are motivated by various incentives within the company’s organization. Employees’ motivation to reach a higher level of performance is the key to success and growth with any company. In today’s society more companies are competing with each other to build strong relationships and reputations to have valuable people and for them to remain a part of their team. Losing employees to other companies because the benefit package is better, is something employers worry about. It is very important to try to accommodate he want and needs of the workers because they are the ones who make any business a success. In the reading Don’t let them be like Mike, the author stated “the best thing you can do when trying to motivate very successful people is ask them how they want to be rewarded” (Alonzo, 1999). Most businesses have realized they should focus more on what employees want out of a company instead of just running it the way they see fit. The workers are a very important part of what keeps the company going, the growth and reputation that will be built. Without incentives, monetary rewards, or team cohesion it will not be much left to keep good employees around.

The first scenario I would like to give is my experience in Iraq working in the supply chain field. I was a soldier working in the aviation department and usually we are the first ones over and the last to come back. After six months into my tour, we started to hear rumors that we could be extended from a 12 month tour to 15 month tour instead. This worried a lot of the soldiers and we started to see a change in the work ethic. It was not been confirmed yet if we really were extended. About a week later after hearing the news, it was true and devastated most of our team. Some of the soldiers threaten to go on strike and not work because they felt they were under paid for their work. Things were not getting done around our site to keep the mission going. Some soldiers were having a hard time adjusting and being away from their families and just did not want to do anything else but try to make it to the 12 month mark. Soldiers felt like they were deprived any monetary rewards and family time.