Executive Summary: Evaluating Performance Through Motivation and Conflict Management
By: The Ghost Riter
MGT/307
November 13, 2010
Professor J. D. Jonesl
Motivational Theories and Organizations Application of Them
To effectively evaluate performance through motivation and conflict management, one must gain a firm definition and understanding of the term motivation. Motivation refers to the individual forces that account for the direction level, and persistence of a person’s effort expended at work. Direction refers to an individual’s choice when presented with a number of possible alternatives (e.g., whether to pursue quality, quantity, or both in one’s work). Level refers to the amount of effort a person puts forth (e.g., to put forth a lot or very little). Persistence refers to the length of time a person sticks with a given action (e.g., to keep trying or to give up when something proves difficult to attain) (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn,(2008).
In order for an employer to have an employee to do something there must be some incentive for the employee to accomplish what is to be done. This incentive may be negative or positive. For example, if an employee knows that if he or she may be terminated from a job if he or she does not complete the task timely and to standard may be enough motivation for him or her to comply with the employer’s standards. On the other hand, a positive motivator may be that if the employee knows that he or she will be rewarded with paid time off for completing the task above the standard may motivate him or her to work diligently to complete the assigned task. Motivation is essential for a high performance company to exist.
There are many available theories of motivation, and they can be divided into two broad categories: content theories and process theories. Theories of both types contribute to our understanding of motivation to work, but none offers a complete explanation. Content theories of motivation focus...