Running Head: MOTIVATION, SATISFACTION & TEAM LEADERSHIP

Chapter 9 & 10: Motivation, Satisfaction & Team Leadership

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MAN3303 - Leadership & Management Practice

February 2, 2020
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Many different theories motivate people for a few reasons. One is that these theories explain

diverse methods to motivate your followers, your employees, or your team. Also, the fact that

each induvial has a different personality, ergo each team presents different traits. There is no

such one to determine as the best because each person reacts differently to each approach. There

are ones who get encouraged by achieving goals, while others are more productive to avoid

punishments. Leaders must know the team in order to apply the right approach and get the best

result from their team.

Many good leaders are thought of as good motivators, while others lead with other skills. —

For example, Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity are two powerful spokespeople with millions of

followers, although they're considered as a cheerleader for each political side (TWP, 2020). Both

manage to motivate people to participate in movements such as political ones. I would rate them

with a score of 4.5/5. See also Meg Whitman, who is even better at motivating her team. As an

example of this, she is best known for taking eBay from $5.7 million to $8 billion in sales as

CEO from 1998 to 2008 (Forbes, 2020). I would rate her with a perfect 5/5.

On the other hand, Donald Trump, apart from his successes and mistakes, has shown to be a

bad motivator with his staff, although he convinced many Americans to vote for him and believe

in his project. Nearly 33 people have resigned from Trump's administration, and six have been

fired (Business Insider, 2019). I would rate Trump with a 2.5/5. I find the achievements of goals

highly motivating. It makes people believe in what they are doing, and they acknowledge the

worth of their work. When employees can appreciate the results, no matter how small they are,

they get motivated to show more (and higher) goals achieved.

Some schools reward kids with the highest scores, but they are inconsistent because they

usually reward one or the first three from hundreds of kids and teenagers. Some of them see the
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prize impossible, so they do not see it as an incentive but only as a secondary objective. Personal

values also play an important role here. They are a base for many people to accomplish new

goals. Many people do their best job as possible because they do it for themselves. Others, on the

other hand, just might need rewards to be encouraged to work harder and better.

See the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, who is an acknowledged speaker, but

who is also weak in planning and decision-making. It is still too early to evaluate his

performance since he's only been president for four months, but he appears to lean very much on

his vice-president Cristina Fernandez (BBC, 2019). Leaders such as presidents or prime

ministers must be very conscious, yet very extrovert since these roles entail organization and

planning skills but also openness to work with big staffs and leadership to communicate with big

masses (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 207).

To measure a president’s performance, I would evaluate on a scale from 1 to 5 the following

aspects:

Planning Evaluate how they work on plans in short

and the long term.

Communication Evaluate how they express their ideas and

projects to their teams and country, as

well as how they hear them.

Execution Evaluate how they put their plans into

action and how effective they are.

Empowerment Evaluate who they choose to take specific

positions in their team and evaluate the

performance of each of them.

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Initech versus the Coffee Bean

Taking into consideration the statement of Peter Gibbons, I would gauge the orientation as

insufficient. Gibbons is clearly unsatisfied with his work due to the negative environment and the

lack of rewards for his work. To improve his motivation, the company should re-organize their

directors and chiefs, so Gibbons only has to answer to one boss and let the communication chain

be more fluent. Also, the company should provide the proper tools to their employees and

compensation, so they feel comfortable with the job they have. Leaders at Initech invoke the

Golem effect, have Gibbons' response as a result. While The Coffee Bean cites the Pygmalion

effect since they believed in a non-conventional model to better treat their employees (Hughes,

Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 378). The Coffee Bean has seen a significant reduction in turnover

because they have managed to retain their managers and employees for more extended periods.

They have created a warmer bond with their customers, and the business model attracts more

every day.

Groups, Teams, & Leadership

Schools, universities, and work centers are places that form part of our daily routines.

Because of this, we always search for the most comfortable, nurturing, and safest ones, as we

feel a sense of belonging there to be satisfied with what we do during the week (Hughes, Ginnett,

& Curphy, 2016, p. 401). I find satisfying when a course has an excellent professor and also

high-quality material to study. This way, I have the incentives to study and learn. The opposite

would be when a professor designs an exam impossible to pass, no matter how much you study.

Usually, these professors try to be demanding, but when you find yourself in a situation like this,

you feel as though the effort will be worthless, and you find studying a waste of time. The best
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theory that frames this is Herzberg's Two Factor Theory. The reason is when I am in a

comfortable environment, I feel with more willingness to work.

In the case of entrepreneurs, in general, they work in smaller projects; therefore, they're more

engaged with their job. Smaller organizations expose more the worth of each member of the

team, goals are more ambitious, and most importantly, leaders are found as more authentic

(Jensen & Luthans, 2006). Both the leader and the employees feel highly satisfied and committed

to the company. When these companies grow, new leaders must arise to direct new divisions. It

is not easy to pick these people; there is a probability of over 50% to hire the wrong person due

to poor judgment (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 407). But it is crucial to search for them

on the list of current employees because of two important reasons: if you hire someone from the

outside, you send a message tacitly to the employees saying that the only way to get promoted is

to leave the organization (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 407). Also, a leader picked from

your team already knows most of the dynamics within the company (Hughes, Ginnett, &

Curphy, 2016, p. 407).

The Case of the Troubled Casino

The Brown Bear Casino is having an annual turnover of 30%, with 100% in some positions.

Many long-term employees have decided to part and left others to assume some part of their

roles, each new person hired costs, on average, $3000 and 400 people have recently become part

of the staff (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 416). Taking into consideration the Curphy

and Roellig Followership model (2011), it is necessary to understand that these 400 new staff

should stay working at the casino as long as possible to build experience and high-stable

productivity (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 417). Thus, these employees start being

considered “Brown-nosers," meaning high engagement but low critical thinking (Hughes,
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Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 333). This type of character must be treated with extraversion to

rely on their technical expertise and transmit the knowledge they need for the position. Still,

most importantly, we need to boost self-confidence so we can turn them into “Self-starters”

(Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 329). A method to do it is to motivate them to think of

solutions against problems they face and give them reassurance on the right answers.

After the mentioned Self-starters, it is important to consider the old employees who are

usually this type of worker. We must not forget about them and reward them when it is necessary

and encourage them to help the new employees (Hogan, 2012). This goes to avoid losing

engagement and have more “Criticizers” or "Slackers." We might have some of these employees

as well, so we must recognize more the work of the firsts and put the seconds in the right

position where they find more motivation (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016). In a situation

where we have too many new employees, using a rewarding system might be demanding, and

punishments may jeopardize long-term stays. I would stay with two-factor theory since it

presents a vision to offer high-quality working conditions and impulse motivation through

recognition, advancement, personal growth, and others (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p.

404). This is a theory that can englobe both new and old employees and avoid injustices.

The departments at the casino might be doing their best, but turnover statistics are saying it is

not enough. Department heads seem to have low performance but moderate potential lately.

Taking in the application of the 9-Box Matrix, a proper evaluation could position these members

in the “Inconsistent Player” box since they recently brought undesired results but still have

prospective to improve the situation (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2016, p. 410). If they wanted

to assess the staff regarding these two points, they must first identify the key business drivers in

the casino (InfoEntreprenurs, 2020). In the case of a casino, some necessities for the motivation
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for daily operations would be customer satisfaction, normative compliance of the games, and the

company's independent decision-making skills. These business drivers should also be

represented in the Key Performance Indicators (KPI's), which are mainly gross gaming revenue,

average revenue per user, churn rate, bets/deposit ratio, and customer life value (Everymatrix,

2016).
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References

BBC News (2019, December 18). Alberto Fernández: the return of the controversial "tourist

dollar " and other economic measures with which the new president of Argentina wants

to alleviate the crisis. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-

latina-50822992

EveryMatrix. (2016, July 14). Understand your Online Gambling Business with Key

Performance Indicators. Retrieved from https://everymatrix.com/gambling-business-

key-performance-indicators/

Forbes. (n.d.). Meg Whitman. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/profile/meg-

whitman/#139db2c663cc

Hogan Assessments. (2019, December 10). The Rocket Model: Followership, Team Killers and

Team Performance. Retrieved from https://www.hoganassessments.com/the-rocket-

model-followership-team-killers-and-team-performance

Hughes, R., Ginnett, R., & Curphy, G. (2016). Leadership and Management Practices.

Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

InfoEntrepreneur. (2020). Measure performance and set targets. Retrieved from

https://www.infoentrepreneurs.org/en/guides/measure-performance-and-set-targets/#2

Jensen, S., & Luthans, F. (2006). Entrepreneurs as Authentic Leaders: Impact on

Employees'Employees'Attitudes. doi: 10.1108/01437730610709273

Wemple, E. (2020, January 28). Opinion | The comical hypocrisy of Sean Hannity. Retrieved
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from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/28/comical-hypocrisy-sean-

hannity/