Seminar 5 – Motivation at work

Seminar activity 1:
Watch this video by Elon Musk on motivation: “Work every hour” in advance of the seminar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unU9vpLjHRk

Reflect on this video. Do you find it motivating? Is it possible for everyone to “work every hour”?
Would this be a good thing?

Watch these two clips from the film Dangerous Minds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziBb75YfrP4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1CO3HHoP0E

Consider how the teacher attempts to motivate the students. What motivational theories would
help to explain these different approaches?

Please bring your answers/reflections to the seminar, ready to discuss

Seminar activity 2:
Read the Harvard Business Review article entitled “How to motivate your problem people”

Answer the following questions in small groups:

- Summarise the main argument(s) of the article

- What motivational theories (covered in this unit) do you think are most useful in
understanding the arguments made by the author? Discuss how these theories can be
applied, and what they tell us about the arguments made?

- What steps does the author outline to resolve the problem? Do you think these steps are
easy to follow? Can you think of things that could prevent these steps from being followed?

- Reflect on the author’s use of the terms “problem” or “difficult” to describe these
employees and his recommendation that managers “co-opt” the employees’ behaviour.
What kinds of assumptions are being made here, about the nature of work organisations,
managerial power, and the role of labour/employees? How do you think Marx would feel
about this?!