Running head: MOTIVATION IN MY WORKPLACE 1

Turnitin score 0%

MOTIVATION IN MY WORKPLACE

JOSEPH O. SADIQ

CRAND CRANYON UNIVERSITY

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

MGT 604

PROFESSOR JUDITH KELLY

July 21, 2010

 MOTIVATION IN MY WORKPLACE

Introduction:

Self-awareness involves us developing our understanding of many dimensions of

the self, this form of self-knowledge also provides an essential platform for a solid

understanding and mastery as well as other management skills such as setting

goals and priorities, and managing time and stress and more importantly, living

successfully in a diverse cultural environment.

When I joined IBM in October 2006 after a successful stint at Click Commerce in

Chicago, where I had worked as a lead network engineer. When I looked back and

see how far I’d come what I’d leant along the way unequivocally made me a

satisfied employee, creative, empathetic(Mcshane, Copyright 2000) personality and

good team member.

Though my individual difference and personality assessment tend toward power,

but myself-concept did not agree in totality with just power, but in as much as I

crave for power it’s not at the detriment of a colleague rather seeing success

through my hard work.(Covey, December 2003)

After about a year with IBM and having gone through the organizational and

departmental learning curve, I was able to assert my creativity potential and not

only within the team effort but within every IT department in IBM and my intrinsic
value I derived from performing these tasks always left me with sweet taste in my

mouth, a sense of accomplishment. Nobel-prize winning physicist Arthur Schawlow

said, "The labor-of-love aspect is important”.(Maslow, 1964) Many employees do

gain satisfaction by the way in which their participation on a project leads to

rewards like money or status. My excitement in my job accomplishment was never

lost to both Director and the Chief Executive Officer who later concluded after the

non-traditional feedback theory on done on me; felt I should manage one of our

overseas offices.

Before my overseas posting to Japan, I had the opportunity to work within diverse

group of people on different projects. I love and respect people irrespective of their

race and creed. The aspect of getting to know individuals and not to think

stereotypically is very important to me. My self-assessment exemplary high marks

in appreciating and valuing diversity culture and myself-concept gave me a clear

picture of who I am.

IBM diversity policy has zero tolerance for stereotype or any racial discrimination

with its organization, all employees’ are all important, unique, and valuable, and

hence, integration was smooth from the beginning for me. I made myself

transparent within my team as a lead and this led to every member opening up,

respecting, sharing knowledge and learning of different culture, though we argued

positively on work related issues and resolved amicably. Our logo is TOLERANCE

and RESPECT. The impact of this was noticeable as IBM teams continually
performed incredibly high on every project and hence, redefining the bottom-line

for the company. This aspect of appreciating and valuing diversity culture defines

IBM and set it apart from many organizations even until today.

As an employee, I have attitude or viewpoints about many aspects of my jobs, my

careers, and my organization. Even though organizations cannot directly impact

employee personality, the use of sound selection methods and a good match

between employees and jobs always ensured people were selected and placed into

jobs most appropriate for them, which, in turn, will help enhance their job

satisfaction.

Using leadership to change organizational values and beliefs is a recipe for

potential problems as seen with IBM new managers in later years. Unfortunately,

some managers even my direct newly employed manager who never really

understood IBM traditions felt the experience he brought from another job will

prevail in IBM. One of his mistakes was thinking employees were most desirous of

pay to the exclusion of other job attributes such as interesting work.

This status quo had re-defined my perception, I started been driven by “Time is

money” and I realized after all that my reason for working is to earn money and

my motivation should be my pay (salary), I developed extrinsic value to the

detriment of my moral intrinsic value. Empty pocket won't pay the bills. It's a
disturbing issue to me because my sense of intrinsic value was over-shadowed by

my manager’s common sense who believed that my time must be administratively

managed toward work and what interest me is of no value to the organization, the

new ideas affected my job satisfaction and I lived by the hour.(Hackett, Guion,

Hulin , & Roznowski, 1985)

It would have been easier for me then to say IBM motivational policy is next to

none, but new managers who were rushed from the field of employment onto the

field of work made a mess of the whole policy, many of them came with the believe

that they have enough experience from their old jobs and can hit the ground

running. The importation of foreign ideal to IBM did a lot of damages, employees’

morale and job satisfaction were eroded, equity, fairness and justice became a

thing of past, all were replaced with work and work and earn your salary. Not until

the non-traditional feedback theory was applied late in the spring that IBM

management observed the impact of imported policy on all IT department

employees’ and immediately action was taken and the employees needs were

redressed by re-introducing both content and process theories of motivation, 6

months later, IBM organization became known as employees’ company and no

longer managers company. The realization of employees’ needs, job satisfaction,

fairness and justice in social exchange and the strength of a tendency were

introduced again and new incentives like paid tuition, home purchase assistance,

re-settlement assistance, and 75% of employees contribution to 401k are match

and added to employees benefit and these immensely motivated employees, and

once again IBM was on the path to success.

To manage others or be managed effectively within the workplace is an

organizational corner stone for success. One of the major issues that I experienced

with IBM was the problem of motivation and management when the managers

came on board. The once well balanced policies were left to be adulterated with

untested ideals from outside; hence, there was disconnected and dysfunctional

environment as the initial case with IBM. This partly emphasized the using of

leadership to change organizational values and beliefs a recipe for potential

problems as seen with IBM new managers. Employees’ traits, values and attitudes

all have significant effects on job satisfaction but this was not the case with the

new managers who believed that money should motivate employees and this was

contrary to Maslow theory of hierarchy needs; Herzberg theory on job satisfaction

and job unsatisfaction all these identify the content theory whilst Adam’s equity

theory on how people strive for fairness and justice in social exchange and Vroom

theory on the strength of a tendency in an employee. Over-sight of these qualities

brought about IBM’s conflicts, unsatisfied employees and most of us the

employees’ were more likely to quit our jobs or be absent than very few satisfied

employees. Again, the introduction of non-traditional feedback theory alleviated all

negative issues.
 Summary:

All organization's base rests on management's philosophy, policies, values, vision

and goals; this in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed of the

formal organization and informal organization, and the social environment. Culture

determines any type of leadership, group dynamics and communication within the

organization whilst the workers perceive this as the quality of work life which

impacts their degree of motivation. These outcome performance, personal growth,

individual satisfaction, and development, all combine to build the model that the

organization can operates from successfully.

 References

Covey, S. R. (December 2003). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Original edition ed. ed.).

Retrieved from

Davis-Blake, A., & Pfeffer, J. (1989). Just a Mirage: The Search for Dispositional Effects in

Organizational Research.. Academy of Management Review, 14, 385–400.)

Hackett, , Guion, , Hulin , , & Roznowski, (1985). [Peer commentary on the journal article

“Dissatisfaction” by ]. , (), . doi: Retrieved from

Maslow, (1964). Hierarchy Needs. doi:

Mcshane, S. L. (Copyright 2000). Adaptive from Active Listening Skills Inventory. doi: Retrieved

from

SOURCE: From A Kinicki and B Williams, Management: A Practical Introduction, 3/e, McGraw-

Hill, 2008, p 293. Copyright © 2008 The

McGraw-Hill Companies. Reprinted with permission.