Employee motivation and stress are important areas of research for I-O psychologists. Among the key aspects that must be understood are how employee attitudes and various motivational theories and techniques relate to the overall performance of an organization. Organizations should strive to implement ways to motivate and alleviate stress on their employees to improve job satisfaction, performance, and productivity.
For this assessment, imagine you are a motivational speaker scheduled to give a keynote speech at an industry conference of I-O psychologists. Your plan is to discuss current motivational theories for the workplace, evaluate one of those theories, and apply it to an audience member who has volunteered to come up on stage. Your goal is to demonstrate to the audience how to evaluate an employee’s current workplace scenario and suggest techniques that might be used to motivate the employee based upon his or her individual characteristics.
Preparation
Choose three of the following motivational theories to research for this assessment:
Goal-setting theory.
Control theory.
Action theory (Rubicon theory).
Self-regulation.
Maslow’s need theory.
Reinforcement theory.
Vroom’s VIE theory.
Equity theory.
Write a 45 page speech that addresses the following:
Introduce yourself and the topic you are to address.
Briefly explain at the three motivational theories you researched for this assessment.
Simulate a short question-and-answer interview with a hypothetical audience member who raises his or her hand in response to your query, “Who in the audience feels unmotivated in their current job?”
Construct the information you need to make a proper decision on what motivational theory to apply to the particular situation.
Include the audience member’s job title, work responsibilities, attitude toward management and coworkers, stressors, and professional goals.
Analyze the relevant attitudes and motivations of the hypothetical employee based on the information you collected above.
Apply two motivational techniques from the literature (for example, contingent rewards, job enrichment, or feedback) in the context of the characteristics of the situation. Suggest an action plan to be considered by both the employer and employee to increase motivation. Be sure to apply research findings to support your discussion.
Discuss why these motivational techniques are appropriate choices and what the desired outcomes might be.
Additional Requirements
Your assessment should meet the following requirements:
Written communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
APA format: Resources and in-text citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting guidelines.
Length: 45 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and references page.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.
Number of resources: A minimum of 4 scholarly resources.
