The Essay On Motivation, Individual Differences, And Teamwork In An Organization Is Crucial.

You are required to contribute your Discussion Forum in Blackboard. This will start in week 5. The nature of each contribution can be found on the weekly discussion forum in Blackboard.

As a guide, the contributions need to be based on thoughts that arise after completing the week’s reading, video materials, etc. The thoughts may be based on personal experiences in (a not to be named) organisation (past or current), or perhaps from a web-site, journal article or mass media item that is relevant to the week’s module topic.

Contribution to Discussion Forum in Blackboard

Individuals perceive things differently. A person decides to consider the different aspects of a message to focus their attention based on what interests them, what is familiar to them, or even what they consider important. The attributes that make individuals perceive things in a different manner are called individual indifferences (Barry and Wilkinson, 2016, pp.273). For instance, a person’s cultural background plays a crucial role in the manner in which a person perceives their world. For instance, a person who comes from a culture that values community might not be attracted by a slogan that tells people to stand out from the crowd. A person’s attitudes, values, and beliefs also affect how they perceive things.

Different perception is experienced in films and movies the same in other things. For instance, the recent movie that I have watched is The Condor. This series is analyzed by on the basis of a young CIA analysts Joe Turner, whose idealism was tested when he stumbled onto a plan that is both terrible and brilliant and which threatened the lives of millions. According to me, I loved the movie because it is thrilling, has got the CIA “thing’, twisted cases of criminals. This interests me because I am always wondering what the next move will be (Carter, et al, 2013, pp.946). However, when I consulted my 30-year old friend who comes from a reserved and religious background, he considered the movie to be a motivator to the criminals who get hints from the movie how to rob innocent people and escape. Thus, a person’s perception is shaped by their surroundings, values, age, background, or even education.  

Motivation can be considered to be what maintains, energizes, as well as controls behavior within an organization. Thus, it can be seen why motivation plays a crucial role in an organization. However, it is considered challenging to capture a person’s drive in quantitative metrics with the intention of ascertaining the extent which higher motivation is responsible for higher productivity in a firm (Ceschi, Dorofeeva and Sartori, 2014, pp.223). Nonetheless, it is globally recognized that motivated employees translate to a higher value and also are responsible for more substantial levels of achievements. Therefore, managing motivation is crucial for the success of any venture. With an enhanced productivity, a company is able to achieve an enhanced level of output. Research has proven that employees who are more motivated are most likely to be more quality-oriented, look for other best alternatives for accomplishing tasks, and work with an enhanced productivity and efficiency.

Importance of Individual Differences on Perception

According to the link provided on the UK’s best places to work and the 100 best workplaces in Europe, these organizations cover both the large, medium, as well as the small firms’ categories (Cur?eu and Pluut, 2013, pp.91). The organizations have not only gained their popularity due to the wide range of opportunities that they offer to the world but also the attention that they pay on their staffs. The companies offer their employees the best job designs as well as scheduling which include job rotation, enlargement, as well as enrichment. Nonetheless, the firms motivate their staffs when their excellent performances are rewarded with the World’s Best Workplace Awards (Dysvik and Kuvaas, 2013, pp.417). These firms also share schemes, offer flexible scheduling, provide their staffs with professional development as well as training, recognize achievements, and share positive feedback.

The elements that are essential in sneering that a teamwork is successful include: the members should be fully-committed in attaining the groups’ goals and objectives. Every member is mandated to devote their time and energy to advance the mission of the team and must trust the other members (Goh, Chan and Kuziemsky, 2013, pp.427). Also, teams that are effective must always have an open line of communication. Such communication should be honest and the flow to other members should be equal. Other elements of effective teamwork include diverse in its capabilities and should feel free in thinking creatively.

Other conditions that might necessary for teams to be effective include: the teams should have a clear purpose. The greater the clarity on the purpose makes it easier for teams to focus on the right thing (Mensah and Tawiah, 2016, pp.261). Also, a team should have the right people that possess the right skills. This includes having team members that have knowledge in their own areas, meaning that they possess the right attributes necessary for building trust, rapport, and relationship with other members. Other conditions include the need for dependency, team accountability, and even diversity.

Breaking down the overall group goal into tasks helps an organization attain its functions and purpose properly. First I would begin by organizing the steps in the overall goal beginning with the goal’s vision statement at the top of the hierarchy. Then I would work down the project’s primary variables and outline the unique tasks that are to comprise these deliverables (Latham, 2014, pp13). The steps would include: describing the statement of work, determining any important project’s phases, developing variables at every phase, segmenting the variables into manageable tasks, and assigning each manageable section to the team members.

Motivation and Productivity in an Organization

In my opinion, good leadership traits entail recognizing every person’s strengths and weaknesses as well as using them in a team to good effect. Additionally, I believe that a leader should be capable of recognizing their limitations and strengths. Behavioral theory is considered to be more “democratic”. According to the theory, becoming a leader only requires the right training. However, the trait theory holds that leaders should possess certain inherent and innate qualities (Parris and Peachey, 2013, pp.383). For instance, if a person was born in a family that was considered to let people take advantage of them and another person was born in a house full of powerful executives, the person from the first home will develop servility habits while the other becomes assertive. My opinion is that the two theories are not valid. This is because leadership should be considered to be all about principles, values, ethics, as well as making the right decisions based on a person’s principles.

Having an effective leader involves selecting and hiring the most qualified leader in a firm. Organizations select effective leaders by considering their communication skills. This is because leaders who are capable of communicating effectively are able to process information and relate it back to their teams. A leader that is in a position to adjust to unforeseen situations is able to lead their team. Nonetheless, firms consider the relationship-building effectiveness of a leader with the teams (Przytu?a, et al., 2014, pp.16). Effective leaders can be developed through mentoring, training, motivating, or even through inspiring. However, I believe that leaders are born and not made. For example, for an organization to develop leadership within the organization, it should identify the most effective leaders and provide them with the necessary platform to perform.  

Taking Park’s position, I would consider which part of the project is to be delegated first depending on the task’s difficulty as well as its importance (Santagata and Yeh, 2016, pp.159). It would be prudent to perform a project that requires skills that other members lack by myself. However, if the members possess the right skills to perform a certain task, then it would not be wise for me to spend time working on it.

To deal with the concerns, Parks should explain the guidelines of her expectations as well as how she will be involved in the projects. That will help the people to understand what she expects.

Best Places to Work based on Motivation and Reward

From my perspective, I do not think the executive should maintain authority by controlling projects. What they should be doing is to guide other individuals in their activities such that they are able to accomplish their objectives.

Things that executives should not delegate include vision, hiring decisions, onboarding a new employee, discipline, praise, and recognition.

To make sure that contentious issues are discussed in the workgroup, I would create an environment where individuals feel safe to discuss the problems. To achieve this, I would ensure the teams are aware that team dynamics are maintained by bringing up issues. To bring out unspoken conflicts into the open, managers can address them without having to call anyone out on it.

Conflict management and compromise technique can be utilized by the negotiators to influence the involved parties’ feel that they are trying to achieve similar objectives. In that case, they can employ the smoothing technique whereby they ignore the involved parties’ differences and focus on their common interest.

When I was younger, I recall that whenever my friends disagreed, rather than talking about their issues out, they ignored their differences and this even led to further problems. Among the things that could have been done to facilitate communication and collaboration between the two is for the other group members to encourage the angered parties to engage in talks rather than feeding gossips.

Sustaining development is essential in developing existing products. This innovation does not develop new markets or value markets but rather improves on the existing markets with increased value, thus enabling organizations to effectively compete with each other’s’ sustaining improvements. Specifically, this kind of innovation is aimed at targeting the demanding, high-end consumers with improved performance compared to what was initially available (Wang, Kim and Lee, 2016, pp.3235). Some of the sustaining innovations that have affected me over the past year include: iPhone X, as well as the development of iPhone, has got several features such as the face recognition system, the latest ultra HD 75 inch television that has got improved clarity, the VR headset has got an enhanced sound quality, Smartphone, the Smart Car, and the electric skateboards.

Disruptive innovation is essential in creating a new market and value network. Opposed to the sustaining innovation, disruptive innovation does not take place among competitors who are already established. Disruption is used to define the process whereby a smaller organization that has got fewer resources successfully challenges the established incumbent businesses. Among the disruptive technologies that have affected me include the social media which to a large extent has disrupted the marketing and communication services (Schaffer, Sandau and Diedrick, 2013, pp.1101). Nonetheless, the USB storage devices have disrupted the storage world where information was initially stored on compact disks. This has facilitated me to effectively carry my information whenever I go. Also, apps such as uber eats, foodora, as well as deliveroo have helped me a great deal in ordering for meals. As a result, such apps have disrupted the fast-food restaurants that have not yet incorporated technology into their operations. I have welcomed this innovation since it has benefited me over the past few years.

Essential Elements of Effective Teamwork

With the intention of improving organizational behavior, a firm indulges in the holistic analysis process, whereby they conduct an analysis of the human behavior. In a culturally diverse environment, there are several things that are of great importance. Such things consist of the group behavior, conflict management, training, interpersonal skills, structure, HRM practice, motivation, leadership style, and the predominant style. In an environment that is culturally diverse, it is essential that individuals remain in cooperation with each other. In the current world, it is not a surprise to see people migrate from their countries to other nations in search of employment. Nonetheless, there are several issues that arise as a result of the differences in cultures, thus resulting in differences in people’s living styles (Shepherd, Williams and Patzelt, 2015, pp.36). To effectively cope with cultures that result from the difference in cultures, individuals should be adaptive enough.

Every individual inherit culture in various ways throughout their life. However, depending on the social norms as well as the other attributes that the individual choses to believe, culture value within them is bound to change due to new experiences. The interpersonal skills are important in running an effective relationship with other people, such as the shared value and cultural matters. For leaders to enhance motivation in the workplace, they should be able to understand their staff’s beliefs and religion among other things. For managers to be effective in managing people from different cultures, they should upgrade their general authoritative performance, obtain abilities in culturally diverse human relations, as well as take social responsibility. This makes all the above practices to be culturally relative.

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