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Module 2 – Case-WORKPLACE MOTIVATION

MGT302 Organization Behavior and Teamwork

As in some of the other assignments in this course, you will draw upon your personal experience for this Module 2 Case Assignment. For the assignment, you will consider the topic of telecommuting and motivation. You will prepare a blog entry that discusses your own experience and applies the background material to the prospect of becoming a telecommuter.

For an overview of some important current issues in telecommuting and working remotely please read:

Peck, E. (2015, March 18). Proof that working from home is here to stay: Even Yahoo still does it. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/18/the-future-is-happening-now-ok_n_6887998.html

Case Assignment

In the background materials, you read about some very traditional theories of motivation such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. There is sometimes a challenge in applying these theories.

Begin with some personal reflection. Consider a time at work when you felt highly motivated. Apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory to your situation. Think about what motivates you personally. Can you apply Maslow’s and Herzberg’s theories to yourself? For this assignment, you will discuss these ideas in a hypothetical situation in which you are offered the opportunity to work remotely, that is, telecommute to your job.

For this Module 2 Case Assignment, you will prepare a blog entry with the title:

My company has offered me a chance to work remotely. Should I telecommute? How can I stay motivated working from home? If I decide to work from home, what can my company do to help me stay highly motivated?

Your blog entry should discuss the following:

  • What motivates you?
  • How do Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory explain your own and other employees’ motivation?
  • How can employees remain highly motivated when telecommuting? What can they do to motivate themselves? What can the company do to motivate telecommuting employees?
  • Will you become a telecommuter? Why or why not?

What is a blog assignment? A blog is like a conversation between you and the world. It is like having a conversation just with yourself, too. In this particular blog, you are given questions that you are to respond to in your blog (conversation). Like a regular essay assignment, your blog entry will have cover and reference pages.

Your blog entry should be the equivalent of a 3-page paper. Also, be sure to use in-text citations and a reference list, with at least 2 scholarly references for support. You can write the blogs in first person since the assignment is not an essay paper. For administrative purposes, please add a title page so that your assignment can be readily identified. Each entry should have a heading to separate it from the next entry.

Note: A URL (website address) is NOT a reference. A reference always contains four parts: author, publication date, article title, and the source of the article. Sometimes there is no author, but the APA manual tells you what you can put in that spot instead. The source for a high-quality peer-reviewed journal article is the journal!

Upload your assignment to the Case 2 Dropbox. Be sure to review your TurnItIn Originality report. If the score is over 20%, you may not be writing in your own words and you will need to contact your professor and arrange to revise and resubmit your assignment.

Assignment Expectations

The Case papers in this course will be evaluated using the criteria as stated in the Case rubric. The following is a review of the rubric criteria: 

  • Assignment Requirements: Does the paper directly address all aspects of the assignment? Have the assignment instructions been followed closely?
  • Critical Thinking: Does the paper demonstrate a college level of analysis, in which information derived from multiple sources has been critically evaluated and synthesized in the formulation of a logical set of conclusions? Does the paper demonstrate that the student has read, understood, and can apply the background materials for the module?
  • Writing and Assignment Organization: Is the essay logical, well organized and well written? Are the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary appropriate for college-level work? Are section headings included? Are paraphrasing and synthesis of concepts the primary means of responding, or is justification/support instead conveyed through excessive use of direct quotations?
  • Use of Sources and Mechanics: Does the paper demonstrate that the student has read, understood, and can apply the background materials for the module? If required, has the student demonstrated effective research, as evidenced by student’s use of relevant and quality sources? Does the student demonstrate understanding of a consistent (e.g., APA) style of referencing, by inclusion of proper citations (for paraphrased text and direct quotations) as appropriate? Are appropriate sources from the background material included? Have all sources cited in the paper been included on the References page?
  • Timeliness: Has the assignment been submitted to the Dropbox on or before the module’s due date?

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE WORKPLACE

MGT302 Module 1 – SLP-

For the Session Long Project, apply the concepts from the background materials to your own personal workplace experiences. Instead of writing a paper for the SLP assignments in this course, you will create journal entries. Journaling involves writing down thoughts and sometimes emotions clearly and specifically. For an individual to benefit from journaling, experts sometimes recommend writing for up to 20 minutes per day. Our SLP assignments will not ask quite that much, but who knows? By the end of the course you may have picked up a journaling habit. 

journaling

You can read about Journaling in your textbook (page 20) here:

Organizational behavior. (2017). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition. Retrieved from http://open.lib.umn.edu/organizationalbehavior/. CC BY-NC-SA License.

Hint: You can download the textbook as a PDF file so you are not dependent on access to the link.

If you are interested, then you can also read about the relationship between journaling and stress management here:

Scott, E. (2018, April). The benefits of journaling for stress management. Very Well Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-benefits-of-journaling-for-stress-management-3144611

For this first SLP, review the background material, especially about person–job fit, personality, and attitudes. Then as you go about your work day, try to observe how these issues manifest or show themselves in your place of work. For example, you might notice that there is an excellent person–job fit for one of your coworkers and from what you have learned in the background material you now understand why. Or you might notice how a particular coworker’s personality showed itself in the way he or she reacted to something. Be creative in trying to notice what is happening around you at your workplace.

Over the course of the module (2 weeks) make a journal entry of a least a paragraph or two (the length should be up to a half-page) on 5 separate days.

Note: A good paragraph contains a topic sentence, supporting sentence(s), and a concluding sentence. If you want to read about what writing a paragraph involves, refer to the following reading:

Writing explained. (n.d.). What is a paragraph? Definition, examples of paragraphs. Retrieved from https://writingexplained.org/grammar-dictionary/paragraph

Your 5 half-page separate journal entries should accumulate to 2 or 3 pages by the end of the module.

Before you submit your journal entries, review what you have written and add in-text citations from the background material as appropriate. Also include a reference page at the end of your paper that gives the references that correspond to the in-text citations you used. For completeness, don’t forget to add a title page. (Tip: You should always include at least one high-quality peer-reviewed reference about a concept in the assignment. For example, one concept in this assignment is person–job fit while another is employee attitudes.) Peer-reviewed journal articles are found in the Trident Online Library. They are rarely found by Googling a topic.

Note: A URL (website address) is NOT a reference. A reference always contains four parts: author, publication date, article title, and the source of the article. Sometimes there is no author, but the APA manual tells you what you can put in that spot instead. The source for a high-quality peer-reviewed journal article is the journal!

Upload your assignment to the SLP 1 Dropbox. Be sure to review your TurnItIn Originality report. If the score is over 20%, you may not be writing in your own words and you will need to contact your professor and arrange to revise and resubmit your assignment.

SLP Assignment Expectations

The SLP papers in this course will be evaluated using the criteria as stated in the SLP rubric. The following is a review of the rubric criteria:

  • Assignment-Driven Criteria: Does the paper cover all key elements of the assignment in a substantive way?
  • Critical Thinking: Does the paper demonstrate a college-level of analysis in conceptualizing the problem? Are viewpoints and assumptions critically evaluated and synthesized in the formulation of a logical set of conclusions? Does the paper demonstrate that the student has read, understood, and can apply the background materials for the module?
  • Scholarly Writing/Oral Communication: Does the student demonstrate college-level skill in scholarly written/oral communication to an appropriately specialized audience?
  • Assignment Organization and Quality of References: Does the student demonstrate understanding of a consistent (e.g., APA) style of referencing by inclusion of proper citations (for paraphrased text and direct quotations) as appropriate? Are appropriate sources from the background material included? Have all sources cited in the paper been included on the References page?
  • Timeliness: Has the assignment been submitted to the Dropbox on or before the module’s due date? 

Discussion: Personality Traits and Personality Tests

One area of controversy is how well you can accurately assess the personalities of employees or potential employees. One popular way is through various assessment tools, such as questionnaires.

For your first post, give the following information:

  1. How would you rate yourself on each of the Big Five personality traits based on only the description of the trait? Would your friends agree with your self-ratings?
  2. After your own self-ratings, you can use the link provided in your textbook, http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/ to take a personality test. Alternatively, you can do a word search in Google or other search engines on “big five personality test” and find an online personality test that will tell you how you rate on the Big Five dimensions.
  • Take the test and compare your results with your initial self-ratings.
  • How do you feel about the personality test you took? Was it accurate, or not very helpful?

Also, provide the link to the test from the text or the one you found in case any of your classmates want to use it.

For your second and third posts, compare your results with those of your classmates, and try to find a classmate with opposite traits from yours as well as one with very similar traits.

Additional Key Elements of the Assignment: Your Initial Post should occur in a timely manner (by the third day of the module for full timeliness points). Include the original questions along with your initial, informative post. Support your post with information from at least one high-quality peer-reviewed academic reference and provide the complete source information (so that your peers can find the article if they wish). Utilize your own personal experiences, as applicable.

Note: A URL (website address) is NOT a reference. A reference always contains four parts: author, publication date, article title, and the source of the article. Sometimes there is no author, but the APA manual tells you what you can put in that spot instead. The source for a high-quality peer-reviewed journal article is the journal!

Your Subsequent Posts: Read through responses by peers and post responses to at least two classmates’ posts. Introduce ideas/comments and/or research not mentioned yet.

Remember: To receive full credit in this forum, you need to post a minimum of three quality posts (your own initial post, and responses to two classmates). Only one outside source is needed (in the initial post). But in any post, if you borrow ideas/information from other authors, give them credit for their work.

Now that you have completed the three assignments in this module, do you agree with the statement, “Yes, I can meet the three Module 1 learning outcomes”? If your answer is no, please review the material again before taking your quiz in this module.