Janet Chow Motivation

Case Study Selected
The case study selected for solving is case study three, which discusses Janet Chow, a 27 year old individual that has just been promoted to a first level management position as team leader. The key attributes of Chow include being a hardworking, exemplary work completion, working well with others, being accessible to aid others and also being ultimate team player. However, Chow lacks experience in the corporate world. Subsequent to accepting the position of team leader, Chow faces numerous issues. This includes lack of making direct eye contact with team members, constantly seeking consensus whole making decisions and solving problems, being perceived as slow and deliberate, lack of independence and concentrating on relationships rather than output attained.
Motivational Issue
Motivation is imperative to just about any aspect of life. It is delineated as the internal clout or energy that steers one in the direction of undertaking a particular action. In particular, motivation buttresses the ambition, amplifies initiative and provides direction, audacity, energy and the perseverance to pursue one’s goals and objectives. In this particular case, the motivational issue is that owing to her lack of corporate experience and also style of leadership, Chow is inefficacious in guaranteeing high productivity of the team. Owing to this, she constantly seeks the perspectives of others prior to making decisions and solving issues and fails to take incentive of her own. Furthermore, she is scared of being assertive and has a preference of focusing on relationships instead of being stern and ensuring that the productivity attained is what is necessitated.
Motivational Problem
The perceptible motivational problem in this case study can be linked to Alderfer’s ERG theory, which encompasses existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. To begin with, existence needs take into account the needs for basic material needs, which comprise of the functional and physical safety needs. In this case, Chow’s basic material needs include working well with others, being accessible to aid others and also being ultimate team player. Secondly, there are relatedness needs, and this takes into account the fact that people necessitate significant relationships, belongingness and love and they endeavor to attain public fame as well as recognition. In this regard, the issue is that Chow was more concerned of creating relationships with employees and being loved and recognized rather than insisting on ensuring that the objectives of the organization have been met. Growth needs take into account the necessity for individual development, personal growth as well as progression. The downside to this is that this approach is entirely not in tandem with the approach taken by other leaders and expected within the organization in its entirety (Kessler, 2013).
In this regard, the strategy that should be taken by Chow is the controlling motivational strategy. This takes into account compelling employees to perceive, feel, as well as act in particular ways, and overruling employees’ own perspectives. Chow ought to first be independent in decision making and thereafter take into consideration the perspective of the employees. This will not only ensure that the process of decision making is fast but also will ensure that not all aspects are reliant on consensus of every employee. Imperatively, this controlling motivation strategy will motivate employees by external incentives, pressure or control rather than being dependent on the motivational resources of the employees. Chow can also employ autonomy-support strategy which will encompass communication through clear expectations for each employee, handing out directions, providing guiding principles and setting limits (Hornstra et al., 2015).
Justification for the Selection and Application of the Chosen Motivational Strategy
This motivational theory is befitting to this case owing to the fact that the theory postulates that if the manager lays emphasis solely on one need at a time, then he or she will not be able to motivate the personnel in an effective and efficient manner. For instance, in this case, Chow concentrates solely on ensuring that the relations with the employees are secure, which fails to motivate personnel because she ends up being slow and ineffective in her approach. Furthermore, the level of output attained by the team is not sufficient.



References
Hornstra, L., Mansfield, C., van der Veen, I., Peetsma, T., & Volman, M. (2015). Motivational teacher strategies: the role of beliefs and contextual factors. Learning environments research, 18(3), 363-392.
Kessler, E. H. (Ed.). (2013). Encyclopedia of management theory. Sage Publications.