Assignment: Motivation for Performance

Being able to understand the different types of motivational theories helps leaders to build stronger organizations. It is important to focus on motivation for employees in order to provide a supportive workplace that helps propel employees towards achievement of organizational goals.

The following Course Outcomes are assessed in this Assignment:

MT302-3: Analyze theories of motivation to improve employee performance.

GEL-1.02: Demonstrate college-level communication through the composition of original materials in Standard English.

GEL-6.02: Incorporate outside research into an original work appropriately.

You read about motivation and were provided an opportunity to practice with motivation concepts. Now you will apply motivation concepts to a work situation. Read the fictional scenario and then address the checklist items provided below in an expository essay.

Scenario (fictional):

The Cordis Building Works Company modifies and builds portable offices and homes based on customized plans using everything from shipping containers, to modular homes. The company has been in business 35 years and has prided itself on providing a very competitive salary and great benefits as well as retaining most of their original employees since they began. While they originally began the company doing creative designs and one of a kind housing and office buildings, much of the routine work in the factory is now done robotically. They still need a supervisor and technicians to keep the operations running as well as the construction crew who actually deliver and construct the products on site. Now the designs might be modified a bit but are already in their computer and ready to produce with some small modifications when needed. There are two main engineers, one who predominantly works on high-end mansions, and the other who predominantly works on corporate office projects back at the main offices.

The CEO and President (i.e., the husband and wife team who are the founders), are the ones that meet with prospective corporate clients and negotiate the prices and building parameters. While the company used to construct low income housing as well, the clients are now almost exclusively, wealthy private clients or corporate titans. The CEO and the company president are beginning to think about retirement. They want to keep the company running but they cannot understand why the two engineers seem unmotivated when they are receiving such competitive salaries, and great benefits with three weeks’ vacation a year. In addition, the production line has had more problems of late and the supervisor seems to be coming in late several times a week as have the technicians. They are worried about the future of the company they built.

Checklist: Minimum Submission Requirements

• Summarize the problems at the company that are possibly affecting employee motivation and performance.
• Analyze motivation theories as provided in your text and Learning Activities (providing proper attribution) to explain the engineers’ lack of motivation.
• Analyze motivation theories as provided in your text and Learning Activities (providing proper attribution) to explain the supervisor’s, technicians’, and construction crew’s lack of motivation.
• Explain how the CEO and president might better motivate employees to improve performance.
• Do some Library research and provide a short quote with the appropriate citations from each of at least two (2) scholarly* articles that integrate research into your analysis to provide support for your claims. These citations should have accompanying references on the separate reference page following APA 6th edition format and style. Your essay should demonstrate a clear and sustained point of view.
• Submit your 2–3 page expository essay using the 6th edition APA formatting and citation style (see APA Style Central located in the Academic Tools area of the course) with additional title and reference pages to the Dropbox.

*Scholarly sources have been put through a peer-review process by experts in the field to ascertain that the content is original, and proves any statements or claims with viable research, etc. Select “Library” under the Academic Tools area. Then select “Peer Reviewed” before doing your search on a topic.

Disclaimer: The organization and characters depicted in this exercise are fictional. Any resemblance to real organizations or individuals is purely coincidental.