class on Oct 21

Last Tuesday’s class was all about motivation. What gets people motivated at work? At school? In general? What motivates me to complete school work, including the career assignment for this class? What we learned in class today will help to answer the questions posed above.

First we talked about Maslow’s hierarchy. The needs that I am currently focused on would have to be all 5 of them: physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization! I don’t quite agree with the basic assumptions underlying this theory, but I do agree that all five stages are universal needs. I need food, water and shelter to survive (physiological). I need to feel safe and secure, and my environment has to absent of threat and illness (safety). I need love and affection from my friends and family (belongingness). I have the need to achieve and accomplish certain tasks such as finishing school, and getting a great job, furthermore, I need people to recognize my achievements (esteem). Finally, I have the need to help others, such as engaging in community service, which is something I do on a weekly basis (self-actualization). I feel that at all points of my life, these needs will be in existence, and they are all extremely important to me.

My motivation is impacted by my equity sensitivity. Equity sensitivity describes my perception of fairness in the distribution and exchange of resources. When I feel that I am doing a lot or most of the work when working with a group, I feel very unmotivated and frustrated. It annoys me to see social loafers, as I feel that it is not fair that they are getting a free ride. Although I feel less motivated to finish the assignment/task at hand, my need for achievement (esteem) kicks in, and I will complete the task anyways, as I do not want to risk receiving a poor mark. This can help me with current and future group projects by finding out what people’s needs are in my group, and trying to fulfill them. For example if everyone in my group wishes to get a good mark, and has a need for esteem and belongingness, I can make it clear to them that they have to put their fair share of work into the assignment in order to be well liked by others, and in order to receive a fair grade!

Motivation is an outcome of my expectancy for certain outcomes to occur. When I know an outcome is going to be positive, I am very motivated to perform the action which leads to the outcome. For example, I know that if I put my time and effort into my career assignment, I am likely to receive a good mark; this motivates me to work extra hard and receive a good grade as it significantly contributes to my final mark. The thing that puzzles me about expectancy theory is that if one’s outcome is likely to be negative, why bother performing at all? For example I use to work at Ontario Place, and one of my coworkers use to travel from Ajax to work, and she said it use to cost her $200 a month just for transportation. A typical cashier only made $500-600 a month as we got limited hours. In the end she was left with $300 per month with a job where she had to work very late hours and deal with angry customers; this was a very negative outcome, and I could never understand why she even bothered taking on the job. I would not perform a task that leads to a negative outcome, but I guess not everyone sees the world the way I do.