Report on

Managing People and Organisations—Motivation

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to pick a “problem” at my workplace that relates to

employee motivation and using motivation concepts to analyze the issue and explore
how it might be addressed.

In the field of engineering construction, the average project cycle is 2-3 years for the
investment below 50 million US$. In such a short period, rapidly build up an effective
project team; finish the whole process from design to construction to commissioning
and startup, which is a very challenging job. Especially at the initial stage of the
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project, because the team members are organized to participate in the project
temporarily, and they are coming from a different source with different backgrounds,
such as education, culture, and experience. Some projects lack off team norms to set
up an efficient system to motivate team members to be fully engaged in the project.

In the next following sections, through the example project which I had experienced,
we try to analyze the situation, using motivation-hygiene and 4 - Drive theory, to
understand what is going on in the situation and to identify possible sources of
dissatisfaction, poor performance, or other factors relevant to the case. In the last
section, we try to develop an approach for addressing the problem or potential
improvement.

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 Description of workplace problem

The story started in the year 2007 when I was assigned as the EPCM’s project
manager for a Greenfield resin plant construction in China. The project was started
two years ago, but still in the detailed engineering stage with almost one year delay.
The Owner set up their project management team (PMT) but difficult to manage the
Chinese design institute (CDI). My role was to complete the construction drawing and
prepare the bidding package and start site construction work ASAP.

In the following weeks, I talked with the CDI leader engineer, the owner’s project
manager, and the engineering manager, and I identified the main problems: PMT was
equipped with English-speaking senior engineers who were running a similar plant in
the US for many years, they provided a set of process designs from a similar plant to
CDI, and requested CDI to convert the drawing into construction drawings with some
process improvement. For easy communication, CDI arranged English-speaking
junior engineers for the project (in CDI the senior engineers had limited English skills
and unable to communicate in English directly).

The initial thoughts were very simple, PMT engineers had knowledge and experience
for the project, and they just need draftsmen to put their ideas on paper. But when
they were running the detailed design, things were not as easy as they thought. CDI’s
engineers had to follow the local codes for design work, which sometimes had
different interpretations from the international codes, and this caused endless
comments and drawing revision from the owner. Of course, the design work was
delayed. Due to the delay, the owner faced great pressure from head office. Also, due
to the delay, there was no trust between the Owner and CDI.CDI even refused to
follow the comments to update the drawings.

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Anaalysis: Modeels of motivation
In thhe field of construction
c n engineerinng, because the project team membbers coming g
fromm different channels,
c which
w may inncluding the owner's en ngineering tteam and
operration teamm, local desig gn institute,, project maanagement company,
c coonstruction
conttractors andd equipmentt suppliers, etc. Therefo fore, team members
m havve different
needds which arre driven by y different mmotivations;; some for money,
m and some for gaain
experience or achievemen
a nt to get a prromotion. AnA organizattion and teaam leaders need
n
to uunderstand what's
w the reeal motivatiion to driven n people to increase teaam
perfformance.

Thee traditional motivation

n theory focuuses on tran
nsferring thee individuall’s needs intto
mottivation to im
mprove org ganizationall performancce. As we all
a know froom Maslow's
pyraamid of neeeds theory.

How wever, the current

c theory on emplooyee motivaation is “mo ore cross-di sciplinary and
a
inclludes fields such as neu
uroscience, biology and d psychologgy” (Leea & Raschkeb,,
2015, p3). In thhe year 2002
2, Lawrencee and Nohriia presented d the 4- Drivver Motivattion
Theeory, which states that four
f main ddrivers that motivate
m em
mployees aree the drive to:
t
acquuire, bond, comprehend d, and defennd (Berry, 2008,
2 p. 1).

(Beerry, 2008, p.
p 1)

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Herrzberg propoosed the Mo otivation-Hyygiene Theory, which revealed thaat certain
charracteristics of a job aree consistentlly related to
o job satisfaction, whilee different
facttors are assoociated withh job dissatiisfaction (th
he Mind Too ols Content Team, 2021,
p1)..

Team, 2021, p1).

(the Mind Toolss Content T

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Addressing problems and proposed ways to solve the problems

The problem involves a lack of design management system, also lacking team culture
to motivate team members to be fully engaged in the project.

Job and Organization Structure

In the initial stage, CDI engineers are willing to complete design tasks and improve
their design level by constantly learning and comparing the differences between
international codes and local codes. However, PMT engineers just want to think of
them as a draftsman, rather than taking the advantage of the learning drive of CDI
engineers to motivate junior engineers to get improvement through continues learning,
and shows them the direct links between learning and their ability improvement, so
they can make more contributions to the team.
As Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory advise, “enriched jobs offer frequent
opportunities to experience achievement, opportunities to take responsibility,
opportunities to be autonomous, and opportunities to learn” (Sachau, 2007, p. 380).

Herzberg introduces eight suggestions for enriching jobs. Which including providing
performance feedback from the work, establishing client relationships so employees
have the opportunity to serve client, creating continuous learning opportunities,
making employees be able to control their schedules, giving employees control over
organizational resources, allowing employees to communicate directly, and providing
personal accountability for employees’ performance (Herzberg, 1974).

On the other hand, the 4-Driver Theory explains the motivation theory from another
point of view: when organizations show their employee's jobs that have a unique and
important role and are meaningful and foster a sense of contribution to the work, they
will accept it more readily and work harder. (Berry, 2008, p. 1)

This motivation is primarily achieved through job and organizational structure. Teams
need to make sure that the various roles within the team motivate, challenge and grow
the team members. This drive accounts for the desire to make a meaningful
contribution to the team. Team members are motivated by the challenging works and
they can get improvement during the working process (Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., &
Lee, L. 2008).

For this case, since CDI engineers are willing to learn more about international codes
to perform the design work, PMT should make full use of their enthusiasm for
working, and carry out appropriate training. So that they can understand the
differences between international codes and local codes, and applying to the design
work. In this way, they can not only complete the design work, reduce design errors
and rework, but also improve their knowledge and professional ability through the
design work, which makes them more sense of achievement and more engaged in the
work.

Another important consideration is employee coaching. Coaching is a working

partnership between employees and their line managers. It focuses on maintaining
work performance and meeting the needs of employees’ professional development.
Employee coaching can enhance feedback, form the basis of goal-setting assists
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employees focus on their goals, and improve their performance. (Spaten, O.M. &
Flensborg, W. 2013, p.19-21)

Since CDI engineers work closely with PMT, it’s the right time for PMT to training
and coaching CDI’s engineers, to enrich their working experience and understanding
of international codes, this is another way to improve the design quality. Also when
CDI’s engineers feel fully engaged in the design work, and they get knowledge and
experience from the work, they are happy to be more deeply involved in the project.
On the contrary, CDI’s engineers are treated only as draftsmen; they think they're just
doing simple things. This will affect the enthusiasm of their work. CDI engineers
think I’m just a draftsman, whether drawings correct or not are PMT’s business
anyway. They don't have any feelings from the process flow to equipment selection.
CDI engineers will not get any improvement from personal experience to design
knowledge through the design process. That’s the main reason CDI engineers have no
responsibility, no interest in the design work. And the result is to make the work
become a tedious chore, coupled with the continuous drawing revising and updating;
finally, CDI engineers do not intend to participate in this project, which causes the
project much more delay.

Team Culture

Another cause may be related to the team culture. According to the 4-Drive Theory,
the drive to Bond accounts for the enormous boost in motivation when employees are
proud to join the organization and when the organization betrays them, they lose
morale (Boris Groysberg, N. N. & Lee, L., 2008, p.3). This drive can help to develop
caring commitments with others, and also helps people form closer relationships with
others.

Because PMT treats CDI engineers as a draftsman, they neglect to foster mutual trust
and friendship with CDI engineers, neglect to value teamwork and miss the
opportunity to encourage the sharing of best practice. This leads to conflict and
antagonism between PMT and CDI engineers, which affect normal design
information exchange, and this is part of the reason for design errors and rework.
The team culture can be established via embrace teamwork and encourage the
development of friendships and connections; team members can rely on others; values
of collaboration and share success. These connections will encourage members to
develop colleagues who can help each other in the team; they will regard themselves
as a group. When this group is related to the work, mutual assistance between them
can help to complete the work together.

Once the team culture is established, PMT and CDI team members will feel the team's
belongings, especially the CDI engineers. They will more willing to participate in this
project and work as one team to make more contributions.

Reward System

Some other tools may also change the project situation, such as a reward system.
According to the 4-Driver Theory, the drive for Achieve & Acquire is primarily met
through the team reward system. This drive is satisfied when the reward system has
been set up, and this system can separate outstanding staff from the average ones.
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Rewards are linked to performance; staff that performs well is paid more, also the best
employees are promoted from within. (Boris Groysberg, N.N. & Lee, L. 2008, p.3)
For this project, the construction drawing design can be broken down into several key
milestones, and a corresponding amount of bonus can be set for each key milestone.
CDI engineers can get bonuses when they reached the milestone, and PMT can
communicate with CDI management to arrange internal promotions for the
outstanding CDI engineers.

Performance Management and Resource Allocation Process

Another driver in the 4-Drive Theory of Employee Motivation also can help to
improve the situation: Drive to Defend, this drive mainly achieved by employees
feeling consistent and connected with the organization. This can be achieved through
the company's vision/reputation and their performance management system (Nelson
K., 2021, p.1). Since in the workplace stress and conflict are common, and can leave
employees feeling insecure, fearful, and resentful. Team leaders need to ensure that
the work environment is safe and non-threatening, and all employees feeling aligned
and connected to the organization. This can be done through the reputation of the
team and their performance management system. Team leaders need to set up a
transparent performance evaluation system and create a friendly working environment,
fairly treat all team members, regardless of PMT or CDI members, let all members
trust the reward system, and express their comments freely. In this way, the team set
up a good reputation which builds alignment with employees. By using the above
three drivers, PMT can establish a good reputation in CDI, and most of the CDI
engineers willing to participate, and PMT has the chance to select more capable
engineers to finish the design work quickly.

Conclusions

In the above case, the main reasons for project delay are:
- Design management system not established, the design input data and output data
are not specified, plus the understanding gap between international codes and local
codes;
- The team culture problems, which including lack of motivation on job roles, team
coaching, neglecting the value of teamwork, lack of proper rewarding system, and
team performance management.
We set up design demarcation for roles and responsibilities between PMT and CDI
based on each discipline and defined the design information flow to eliminate the
information process delay. And based on the design demarcation developed the
milestones and related incentive mechanism. But when we started the incentive
mechanism execution, we had difficulty in applying the incentive fund. Because the
project was delayed and the headquarters refused to increase the project funds, and
this almost put the project at a dead end. We carefully studied the initial design
proposal and found that some of the containers that were originally intended to be
imported could be replaced with local products to save costs and meet the design
requirements. In this way, we found the money to implement the incentive mechanism
for the project.

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At the same time, we negotiated with CDI management, CDI management was
persuaded to announce to CDI employees to give priority promotion to those who
work hard for the project. With these dual incentives, CDI engineers are willing to
return to the project and start working again.
On the contrary, in this case, because the project was delayed by one year, the man-
hour of the project had already exceeded the original budget, and the CDI engineers
who involved in the project could not get any financial benefit even if they worked
extra hard. This was the main reason that CDI engineers were reluctant to participate
in the project.
By using the project incentive system, CDI engineers now can get financial benefits
from participating in the project, also have the opportunity to improve their design
skills. As a result, engineers who had been transferred to other projects are coming
back to work, and the design work that had been nearly stalled is restarted.
Another challenge was, due to the project delay, some of the CDI engineers now
working on other projects, and cannot return immediately, and this also causes the
potential delay for the project. We discussed with the CDI management and push
them to try their best to arrange engineers onboard. But still, some engineers could not
be arranged immediately for our project. We got additional resources from the EPCM
team to ensure that each design work could follow the normal design process without
affecting the target date of the construction drawing issue.
At that time, we just took part in the actions recommended above, the result was very
positive. The project was returned to a normal situation and a catch-up mode was
established in the team. If all the above recommendations were applied, the result
shall be more positive. Since most of the employees in CDI were willing to work in
an environment, with motivated job roles, team coaching, the value of teamwork, a
proper rewarding system, and team performance management. That’s the reason a
good team leader needs to work constantly to make sure all the four drives are applied
to motivate team members, and “providing employees with direct performance
feedback from the work itself” (Sachau, D.A. 2007 p. 381). It's important to
understand that all good works a team leader has done in these four areas can be
undone if one of the drivers is slightly lacking.

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