29 Dec Motivation of subordinates

Course Project: Organizational Behavior Perspectives

The course project has major assignments that will be due in Weeks 3 and 5. It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete them. Plan time to start the research and other work for those assignments earlier than the week in which they are due.

Course Project Scenario

Your course project is to identify potential organizational behavior problems and recommend solutions for an organization with which you are familiar. All your weekly, written papers will be course project tasks.

Early in Week 1, identify an organization you would be interested in studying. You will investigate the organizational behavior in this organization and research best practice solutions for any problems you observe. You may select your own organization, the organization of a family member, or an organization that interests you. Be sure to review each week’s assignments before selecting the organization to make sure you can locate necessary information. Contact your instructor early in the week if you need advice on your organizational selection. As much as possible, you should utilize actual research and real data for your project. Occasionally, you may fill in some details with hypothetical information. However, you are expected to provide documentation (e.g., citations) throughout your work.

Each week, you will write on the topics identified in that week’s reading, so note any information you find related to any of the following topics:

Systems theory

Individual behavior

Communication

Change

Conflict

Motivation

Groups and teams

Making decisions

Organizational culture

Leadership

Week 1

Assume that the human resources department of your selected organization has received disappointing results on a job motivation survey administered to all employees at all levels. The results indicate that employees reported lower-than-industry-average job motivation, and management is concerned. Employee comments on the survey included the following:

My job is so boring!

My boss micromanages me but never tells me how I’m doing.

I’ve been in my position for fifteen years, but I am never allowed to provide any input about making the work better.

You have been tasked with writing a paper that reviews the theoretical perspectives relevant to the situation in your organization. In particular, you are interested in systems theory and job motivation for this week’s analysis.

Tasks:

Write a paper addressing the following:

Summary: Identify the organization you select and provide a summary of it. What is it? What does it do? Cite research from a variety of sources, including the company’s website, social media sites, company blogs, industry and trade sources, and other sources. The summary should include the organization’s products or services, customer or client base, areas of operation or distribution, history, main competition, and current situation (whether it is an industry leader, a start-up, or a well-established corporation).

Analysis: Analyze the factors that affect job motivation and the internal and external consequences of low job motivation. At this time, you do not need to propose any solutions. Rather, you are using scholarly literature and data (e.g., observations, discussions, events, outcomes, reports, etc.) from your organization to analyze factors and consequences related to job motivation.

Week 2 Project

Course Project: Change Management

The course project has major assignments that will be due in Weeks 3 and 5. It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete them. Plan time to start the research and other work for those assignments earlier than the week in which they are due.

Change Management

Using the same organization that you selected in Week 1, propose a change that your organization could implement that would aid it strategically. The proposed change might relate to some area of need, performance deficiency, or other opportunity that you observe in the organization. Note: You will be proposing a change initiative related to motivation in next week’s assignment. Accordingly, focus your change project for this week’s paper in a direction other than motivation.

Write a paper addressing the following:

Describe the change that you propose and defend its benefits to the organization.

Evaluate how the proposed change may affect various groups of employees.

Assess the conflicts that might occur before, during, and after the change, including why you anticipate these conflicts.

Defend at least three best practices to prevent or resolve those conflicts.

Justify the channels of communication the organization should use in implementing this change.

Week 3 Project

Course Project: Change for Motivation

The course project has major assignments that will be due in Weeks 3 and 5. It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete them. Plan time to start the research and other work for those assignments earlier than the week in which they are due.

Use the same organization that you selected in Week 1.

Scenario:

Management has reviewed your work from two weeks ago about how the employees’ low job motivation may affect the company internally and externally and determined that there is sufficient evidence to support an organizational change. It has asked you to recommend changes that will help to boost employee job motivation.

Recall that a survey showed job motivation among employees was lower than average, with complaints such as:

My job is so boring!

My boss micromanages me but never tells me how I’m doing.

I’ve been in my position for seven to fifteen years, but I am never allowed to provide any input about making the work better.

Write a paper in which you:

Defend at least two organizational changes and explain how these changes will improve job motivation in the workforce. Support your recommendations by citing the theories covered in the readings or your own research.

Assess potential conflicts that may arise due to the changes, including why you anticipate these conflicts.

Justify a change implementation plan for leading the change initiatives and helping the organization overcome any resistance to the changes.

Justify an appropriate communication plan that announces the changes and continues through the change management process.

Week 4 Project

Course Project: Team Building

The course project has major assignments that will be due in Weeks 3 and 5. It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete them. Plan time to start the research and other work for those assignments earlier than the week in which they are due.

Continue to use the organization you selected for your final project in Week 1. This week, you are being placed on a ten-person virtual team. You decide that prior to the team getting started on the project, you want to do some research that will help you identify ways to make your virtual team most effective. You may need to create hypothetical details about the team and its purpose on the basis of what you know of the organization you selected for the final project.

On the basis of your research, write a paper addressing the following:

Assess the purpose of the team (i.e., what is the project it has been assigned?) and the contribution of key members to team purpose.

Analyze four to six potential problems that virtual teams typically face. Is the hypothetical team you described susceptible to these problems? What specific problems might it develop?

Justify four to six viable solutions to make your team effective, including why these solutions will work.

Week 5 Project

Course Project: Leadership Training

It will take more than a week’s effort to adequately complete this major assignment. Plan time to start the research and other work for this assignment earlier than the week in which it is due.

The organization you selected in Week 1 is designing training for all the managers at all levels. It wants to base the training on one leadership theory.

Tasks:

Write a paper recommending a leadership theory. Address the following:

Summarize key details about the organization and two or three of the most important insights you have developed so far about the organization during your course project. This one paragraph summary should provide just enough information that someone who has not ready any of your papers so far would have a brief background for understanding your project organization.

Why do you believe your chosen leadership theory is the best for your organization? What is your rationale? What research can you cite to support your choice? What are the factors in your organization that make your selected leadership theory the best choice?

How will using this theory positively impact the following variables?

Managers’ behavior toward subordinates and its effect on subordinates

Communication

Motivation of subordinates

Group and team behavior

Decision making

Culture

Be sure that you conduct the research necessary to support your conclusions and cite your sources appropriately.