Ahmed El-Ghazouani
Organizational Behavior
Professor Aksehirli
November 15, 2017
Case Analysis #2-Motivation CVS Case
Motivation is an essential element when it comes to an individual’s overall effectiveness when completing a specific task. In this case, Alex, who has just accepted a job as an Assistant Systems Engineer for CVS, has been experiencing a lack of motivation due to her new work environment. Alex accepted this job ready to take on new responsibilities and ready to become an essential addition to the team, however to her surprise, her environment does not promote proactivity. Alex discovered this in an unfortunate way after her new boss, Michael, blew off her ideas. Alex did not take this very well, and realized her current situation would have never happened with her old boss. This lack of familiarity was hard for Alex, and led her to question her value as an employee. As a new employee, quitting is not the best option, and voicing her concerns would not be taken as positively, therefore setting her own goals can be the best potential solution to solving her motivation problems.
There are several factors that can affect an individual’s motivation in the work place, however one of the most significant element that can reduce motivation is the lack of self-actualization. In this case, Alex is an individual who is motivated and ready to offer some of her skills and knowledge to benefit the company. She strives from being challenged and getting an opportunity to solve those challenges. Per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualization is at the top of the list. Part of self-actualization is also getting recognition. Content theories focus on the motivation that results from an individual’s attempt, however it tends to disregard external factors. In many cases, external factors can play a significant role in regards to motivation. As mentioned in the case, when the team faced some glitches with the new software, Alex decided she would try to come up with some solutions to help solve the problem. However, she was not aware that her boss is the kind of boss that fixes the issues without delegating. This comes to show how the environment can be an important factor in determining an employee’s level of motivation.
The lack of motivation witnessed in the case is mainly due to the following issues. The first and most flagrant issue is the lack of direct supervision from the boss, Michael. The goal setting theory focuses on the idea that difficult and specific goals give employees a sense of purpose and direction, which increases motivation in parallel. It is determined from the case that Michael does not interfere with the team, and tends to ignore them whenever he has the chance. This lack of presence from the leader can be problematic in terms of team motivation because in addition to not setting goals for the team, Michael does not offer feedback to his team. They only get “recognition” when the work is bad. Since Alex was not used to this type of environment at her old job, this was not ideal for her. In addition, this lack of recognition can affect the level of motivation of all employees. Since motivation is strongly correlated with job performance and moderately correlated with organizational commitment, this lack of motivation from the employees can lead to a less performant company.
As discussed, Alex was an ambitious employee, and her effort showed just that, however her colleagues all lacked that determination. In this case, Alex was facing negative inequity, since she was putting in the extra effort in order to solve some of the problems the team was facing however none of her colleagues seemed to care or pay attention to the work she was doing. Alex is feeling this type of inequity because her inputs are greater than the rest of the team’s while the outcome seem to be similar regardless of effort. Another way Alex is facing negative inequity is by constantly comparing her current boss to her old one. By doing so, Alex compares her old input and outcome ratio relative to her current one. In this case, financial reward is not the issue, however her work is not recognized by her boss.
To help solve this lack of motivation, Alex can make several changes to help her focus on the bigger image. The first potential solution is for Alex to set her own goals. By following the D-SMART guidelines, Alex can come up with five to ten goals and focus on achieving them. This could potentially help Alex deal with the lack of a managerial presence. By doing so, this could also help Alex to adapt to her new work environment, and help her reduce her resistance to the current office culture. Adapting to this new culture could also reduce the inequity there is between Alex and her colleagues. However, the main reason why Alex is unhappy is because she expected to work for a boss that was like her old boss. One potential solution to solve this issue is for Alex to consider comparing her boss to other managers within the CVS company. This internal comparison could help Alex further understand the company culture and that could reduce the inequity she is experiencing. If the internal comparison does not work as efficiently, Alex could consider an external comparison, and try to compare her manager to managers in the Monterey area. Since inequity can be a big contributor to a lack of motivation, doing these things could reduce Alex’s feeling of inequity, and potentially increase her motivation. Another potential solution, that is however less likely to work, is for Alex to voice her concerns to the team and more importantly to her manager. This would allow Alex to see if everyone is on the same page, and if they are, this could lead the manager to make some changes. The reason why this potential solution is not plausible in this case is because Alex is a new employee, and pointing out the things she thinks are wrong with the team can be taken in a negative way from her colleagues.
The best potential solution to solve the issues that Alex is facing at this point in her early career is to adapt to her environment and help her motivation by developing her own goals. By setting her own goals, Alex will be able to get a sense of completion, because for the first time during her career, due to her current situation, she can take charge and set a direction for her work and possibly her career. This result is based on the goal setting theory, and more specifically based on research by Erez, Earley, and Hulin (1895). They were able to conclude that setting your own goals can increase the acceptance of those goals, which is the first step in satisfying the goal setting theory. This solution is also the most appropriate in Alex’s case because this is reflective of my life as a student. In one of my finance classes, the professor already included all the assignments, deadlines, prompts and examples on blackboard. The professor is only there to teach the material. In my case, I had to set my own goals in order to stay on track. Since all the assignments were due by the end of the semester, I had to plan accordingly, and setting goals that were time specific was important. By following those goals, I was able to successfully complete the course.
Assuming the manager is not willing to change, Alex, as well as her colleagues’ best chance to increase motivation is by setting their own goals. In doing so, their autonomy increases as they are now working individually in order to enhance their performance. Their mastery is directly affected as their performance will be reflective of their goals. Finally, their sense of purpose will increase as a result of their autonomy and mastery. In this case, the team members are responsible in terms of solving this problem, and setting their own goals seems like the most plausible solution.