Research Proposal on "Leadership Approach to Help in Motivating Inspiring and Energizing Employees in Prime Gold Plus"

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The literature review and interview analysis which are to follow here are intended to demonstrate that within the context of this fast-evolving business world, there remains an emphasis on such classically important features as qualified leadership and an orientation toward positive personnel motivation. These two features are inextricably linked in business theory and in the practice executed at Prime Gold Plus. The literature review here considers motivation, performance evaluation and managerial leadership in giving prelude to the Case Study and Analysis of Prime Gold Plus.

Literature Review:

Given the state of the global economy and the general demands placed upon us simply to remain balanced in the midst of responsibilities for the maintenance of living expenses, utilities, home and family, optimum pay tends to be a top priority for individuals in the job market. Therefore, most individuals feel they must find a position which assures that this concern will be addressed first and foremost. It is the motivation to many to achieve a comfort and a financial balance through employment which assures that major living expenses and recreational interests are accounted for.

This process is directly underscored by motivation, a condition which inclines the employee according to the core identification of driving forces in the success of meeting organizational objectives. Separate from the concept of organizational orientation, motivation may be more simply seen as that which drives the actions of an individual who will have certain expectations as the end result of said actions. As crucial social theorist Abraham Maslow (1970) contends, motivation is a force which is founded on certain desires, wants and needs. Reflected in these needs is an intent to be satisfied through the pursuit of the intended ends. This pursuit is underscored by this concept of motivation. (Maslow, 2) Therefore, for the purposes of the discussion which will here apply to work at Prime Gold Plus, it is worthwhile to accept the definition of motivation which states that this is a determinant variable in the way that an employee will behave with respect to opportunities both to work and to be evaluated.

As we have already applied a definition to motivation, it is appropriate to consider motivation now defined as an organizational priority. This is to note that "the study of motivation is the exploration of the energization and direction of behavior. Psychological theories are motivational theories only insofar as they address these two aspects of behavior." (Deci, 3) Namely, managerial leadership must today be armed with the ability to recognize these conditions as they are evident in individual employees. The increasing diversity of gender, ethnicity and cultural background is likely to experience a proportion of these two behavioral aspects that is distinct. This proposes a clear challenge for management to be able to recognize and seize on such proportions while simultaneously abiding traditional organizational goals relating to individual and collective performance outcomes.

In reinforcement of this idea, we consider a premise of historical theoretical importance to organizational behavior. This concerns the ideas proposed by B.F. Skinner. The 20th century behavioral psychologist would be the founder of his school of clinical examination and a key architect of the theoretical framework by which we have come to understand motivation as it relates to behavior and performance outcomes.

B.F. Skinner's ideas regarding operant behavior would become crucial to the discourse over organizational psychology. Matters of productivity, his theories would begin to illuminate, would be directly implicated by the personal experiences of individuals. Human beings, Skinner would surmise, could be understood by way of behavioral observation, which would reveal much about the psychological relationship between inward disposition and external context. Specifically, Skinner would argue that most intelligent animals can be understood quite simply by way of their responses to external circumstances. His theoretical construct depended upon the principle of behavior modification, which he believed demonstrated a quality of human response instinct that could be channeled into a better understanding or organizational tendencies. Skinner would note that in any interaction between an animal and his external environment, a "behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future." (Boeree, 1)

This idea would, though seemingly simple, become a crucial paradigm for identifying causes to shared and institution-wide motivation. A further refinement in defining the nature of this study denotes that energy in motivation theory is fundamentally a matter of needs. . . . Direction in motivation theory concerns the processes and structures of the organism that give meaning to internal and external stimuli, thereby direction action toward the satisfaction of needs." (Deci, 3) In order for the organization to be able to meaningfully distill these behavioral aspects in employees, it is necessary for leadership to be versed in the theoretical bases which are directly relevant hereto. Chief among these, findings today are increasingly more inclined to the implications of Maslow's theoretical structure.

Here, in consideration of this subject, our reading of Deci references Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which is reinforced by the commonly high and shared priorities present also amongst deeply individualized employees. Specifically, Maslow cites such conditions as the need for self-actualization, for socialization and for personal security all as having a direct bearing on the ways people will tend to prioritize when making major life decisions such as how to proceed professionally.

Indeed, the notion of motivation is essential to seizing on the individualized ambitions and demands of employees in order to help each member of an organization succeed according to his own strengths and virtues. The discussion here on motivation touches on the issues of labor diversity and such theories as those relating to gender diversity, ethnic diversity and cultural organization within the organization in order to better understand that which motivates or demotivates employees. The focus is especially shaped by the modern emphasis on a globalizing economy, with differing cultures coming increasingly to interact with one another in the interest of common goals. A case discussion hereafter will revolve on a specific organization fitting this description, with the multinational implications of Prime Gold Plus demanding a discussion on personnel motivation in a globalizing economy.

An initial assumption, which comes through early in this discussion, is that the core of employee motivation may be found in the premise of positive reinforcement. Interestingly, a study by Effie MacLellan offers some insight into the potential drawbacks inherent in relying too heavily upon praise and positive reinforcement as means to promoting organizational motivation. The author warns that implementing such a rewards system in lieu of applying penalties for poor performance may promote what she refers to as 'learned helplessness.' (MacLellan, 196) By coming to depend upon such extrinsic positive reinforcement for the germination of personal motivation, an employee may come to fear failure, to depend on others for indices of his success and to build essentially unrealistic expectations of perfection for himself. In this regard, it may be suggestible that any sensible model for applying positive reinforcement as a means for improving individual performance attempt to balance this system with supplemental means to enabling the emergence of individual, intrinsic motivations for the pursuit of success. Herein lay the challenge at the crux of organizational leadership, where we are engaged in an ongoing effort to improve our capacity to integrate individual and institutional qualities in the professional setting. The primary risk in utilizing such methods of demonstration of a positive assessment is that these tend to conflate reward with assessment.

The Herbig (1997) text demonstrates to contrast this approach that "the assumption that motivation comes from within and cannot… READ MORE