Personal Motivational Style

My motivational style is encouraged by a leader that presents an altruistic style. This style motivates me by giving me opportunities to improve society and to help others less fortunate than me (Hughes, 2013). This motivation is further fueled by my need for achievement. The need for achievement, involves a very strong desire to achieve quality for production. I must achieve something tangible each day in order to feel satisfied about myself. I have an internal fire burning inside of me; that pushes me to start new tasks and work long hours without burning out (Gallup Strength Finder, 2013).

                       When I motivate others I feel comfortable with the traditional style. I feel that motivating others in an organization is easier when it has strong customs and standards of behavior which give it cohesiveness and direction using clear guidelines (Hughes, 2013).

             At this time I am mostly intrinsically motivated. I have a strong achievement orientation and desire values, but as I enter the workforce I anticipate that I will become more extrinsically motivated. Making money, having job security and helping others will be a good combination with my achievement orientation and desire for values. I feel that Human Services is a good fit for me.

            I have accompanied others on several mission trips to Mexico, Myrtle Beach and NYC to assist others to rebuild due to disaster. These were extremely motivating for me. I achieved a quality product while helping others which is just the right combination for my personality.

           

 

Ginnett's Team Leadership Model Facebook

Ginnett’s Model of Leadership has three distinct parts: input, process, and output.

Input consists of the characteristics that make the team successful that contains three different parts: organizational systems, team factors, and individual factors.

·             The organizational system is the reward system.

·             The team factors to be considered are: does the project have a poor design, offer no results, and lack individual autonomy? If so then the team is less likely to be successful.

·             Individual factors are defined whether or not the workers buy into the project and what motivates the team.

    Process contains the four parts that makes the team effective:

·                  The team has to work hard

·                  Have sufficient knowledge and skills

·                  Have an appropriate strategy

·                  Have positive group dynamics

      Outputs are defined as the results of the team.

       Quality goods

·                  Render good services

·                  Make sound decisions

·                  Were the goals achieved (Phillips, 2007).

Select a major organization that has well documented use of teams (High Performing Teams).

Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerburg in 2004 at college. In February 2004, Zuckerberg launched "The Facebook", profiling students and staff from the college. Within 24 hours, 1,200 Harvard students had signed up, and after one month, over half of the undergraduate population had a profile. As the Facebook grew so did Zuckerberg’s team members. He hired multiple team members that offered different talents and abilities to promote Facebook’s growth. The site started off in just Ivy League schools and eventually went to all U.S. universities. In 2005, U.S. high schools could sign up and this is where it began to spread worldwide. This company that started out as a simple, small idea currently has 30 million registered users making it the largest social-networking site (Phillips, 2007).

Inputs (Ginnett’s Model of Leadership.

1. Organizational systems

 The organizational system is the reward system.   

Facebook was co-founded by 5 team members: Zuckerburg, Saverin, McCollum, Moskovitz, and Hughes. The factors that motivated them was because they were all friends with computer skills, and the “hot or not" game for Harvard students (Bellis, 2014). Saverin was the first person, after Zuckerburg, to invest money into the company which was a total of $1,000. Saverin became the business manager, Hughes was Zuckerburg’s roommate and he became the company’s first spokesperson, D’Angelo was the first chief technical officer, Parker was the financial director, Cohler was advisor to products and made major decisions (Facebook Boys, 2010).

2. Team factors

 Does the project have a poor design, offer no results, and lack individual autonomy?

Many companies have invested into Facebook because of these companies advertise to make a profit. Yahoo and Google are among companies which have expressed interest (Phillips, 2007). There are many advantages for companies that advertise on Facebook. The advertising is cheaper; it’s a fraction of the cost of using Google Ad Words and that makes it great for small businesses. The advertising is incredibly highly targeted because Facebook provides information about different people such as: their age, location, education, employment, marital status, and interests. Using this information enables companies searching for employees to create personal ads. Inside the ad the creator can put up to135 characters, twice as much as Google. This helps them get a more appealing ad and increases the chances of convincing the user to click on the ad. Other advantage mare it creates sales, gets more people interested in the company, and gets more loyal customers (Culvers, n.d.).

3.  Individual factors 

Did the workers buy into the project and what motivates the team?
 

The co-founders of Facebook wanted to personally invest into the company because they were all friends and they wanted to support Zuckerburg’s project. Money did not come into play until later after it received international fame. Each of the co-founders is now worth millions of dollars because through the efforts of team work Facebook launched them into making large money profits.

Process (Ginnett’s Model of Leadership) Developments

The development of Facebook was made simple. Users could register easily by entering their email address and birthday free of charge (Phillips, 2007). Facebook is a quick and popular way to connect with current friends, long lost friends, and relatives. Facebook users can share the newsfeed, posting and sharing of pictures, interests, hobbies, music, movies, hometown news, education, work, family, relationship status, contact information, television shows, books, and sports. Users can customize who sees the information and have the capability to set very advanced privacy limitations. 

1. The team has to work hard

It is obvious that the company worked hard because it was able to launch and receive international company recognition within 2 years of its development.  

2. Have sufficient knowledge and skills

Zuckerberg was a keen computer programmer and had already developed a number of social-networking websites for fellow students, Coursematch, which allowed users to view people taking their degree, and Facemash, where you could rate people's attractiveness (Phillips, 2007). The rest of the co-founders had sufficient skills in computers.

3. Have an appropriate strategy

The idea for Facebook was not developed with an appropriate strategy. Zuckerburg created the Facebook site as a "hot or not" game for Harvard students, where website visitors could compare two student photos side-by-side and let viewers decide who was "hot" and who was "not" (Bellis, 2014). He developed this project driven by anger at a x-girlfriend.

4. Have positive group dynamics

There were some negative group dynamics when Saverin was not recognized by Facebook as the co-founder. Saverin sued the company and won (Facebook Boys). The company has received a legal case against them in September of 2004 because the brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, who founded ConnectU, accused Zuckerberg of copying their ideas from their website (Phillips, 2007).

Outputs: goods and services (Ginnett’s Model of Leadership)

 

Quality goods       

Facebook offers a way to connect with friends, long lost friends, and relatives.

Render good services

Facebook users can share the newsfeed, posting and sharing of pictures, interests, hobbies, music, movies, hometown news, education, work, family, relationship status, contact information, television shows, books, and sports.

Make sound decisions

Users can customize who see the information and they have very advanced privacy settings. 

Were the goals achieved?

This company that started out as a simple, small idea has registered 30 million users making it the largest social-networking site (Phillips, 2007).

  

Works Cited

Bellis, M. (2014, March 5). Who Invented Facebook. About.com Inventors. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventions/a/Facebook.htm

Culvers, J. (n.d.). Benefits of Facebook Advertising For Your Business. Ezine Articles . Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Facebook-Advertising-For-Your-Business&id=3976474

Phillips, S. (2007, July 25). A brief history of Facebook. The Guardian. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from  http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia

The Facebook boys: Where are they now?. (n.d.). CNNMoney. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from  http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/fortune/1005/gallery.boys_facebook.fortune/2.html

Group Roles

1)  Consider the various roles members have to perform for a team to be effective.

There are 9 team roles that were developed by the Belbin: plant, monitor evaluator, coordinator, resource investigator, implementer, completer-finisher, team worker, shaper, and specialist. The plant is someone that is “planted” in each team. The plants are creative, imaginative, and are good at solving problems. The monitor evaluator is the logical eye, sees and evaluates judgments and weighs up the team’s options in a dispassionate way. The coordinators clarify team objectives and goals, draw out team members, promotes decision making, delegate, and are mature and confident. Resource investigators explore opportunities, and get contacts that can help with the project, and assist when the team risks becoming isolated and inwardly focused. Implementers plan a practical, realistic strategy to carry out the group goals most effectively. They are disciplined, reliable, and turn ideas into practical actions. Completer-finishers polish the work for errors, are conscientious, painstaking and make sure all goals are accomplished on time. Team workers identify the work that needs to be done and complete it. They are cooperative, perceptive, diplomatic, great listening skills, avert friction and calm the waters of the team. Shapers give the drive that keeps the team moving, and they thrive on pressure, are courageous, overcome obstacles, dynamic, and challenging. The specialist provides knowledge and skills that other team members do not have, and are dedicated (Beblin Team Roles).

2) Which roles would play to your strengths?

The roles that most closely apply to my strengths are the completer-finisher and team worker. As a completer-finisher I consistently check for errors in my work and attempt to be sure that all the goals that have been asked of me are completed. As a team worker I can identify the work that needs to be done, and can accomplish it in the appropriate amount of time. 

Which roles would play to your weaknesses?

      The roles that apply to my weaknesses are plant, monitor-evaluator, resource investigator, implementer, shaper, and specialist. I could be a plant because I am creative, but I am limited on my abilities to solve new problems. If I have had experience with a very similar situation I can deduct what I have learned previously and apply it. I am not a monitor evaluator because I do not always do problem solving in a logical way because I do not include all the scenarios that would affect the problem, but I do have the ability to evaluate the team’s options in a dispassionate way.  I am not a coordinator because I can clarify what the team’s objectives and goals are, but I have difficulty encouraging others to be more involved, promote decision making, or delegate. I am getting better at being a resource investigator by getting outside help from professors and friends but I have difficulty drawing the group out if they become inwardly focused. I am not an implementer because I do not plan a practical, realistic strategy to carry out the group’s goals very effectively because I need guidance, but I can contribute to the group because I am reliable and disciplined. I am not a shaper because I do not have the ability to rally other team members to stay on task.  I dislike and lose confidence and lack courageous when a large amount of pressure is placed upon the team. I am not a specialist because I do not feel I have knowledge and skills that other team members probably do, but I am dedicated and will see the project through.

 3)   How can you become a better team member?  

To be a better team member I should interact more with my group, dedicate more time to solving problems, engage my thoughts into understanding the team’s options more clearly, offer more judgments about how the team should proceed and encourage other team members to be proactive. I have a tendency to prefer to work independently and sometimes I isolate myself too much.  I need to decrease my inward focus and reach out to others more frequently.  I have to actively work to discipline myself to not become easily discouraged or overwhelmed and decrease my stress level that inhibits me from being more verbal, adventurous and spontaneous.

The inputs would be the characteristics that make the group successful. This includes three parts individual characteristics, organizational systems, and team factors. The individual factors would be what motivates the team. Organizational systems would be the rewards. The team factors would be why become invested. The outputs would be what the group accomplished and if it was in a timely manner. This includes the goods, services, and decisions made.

SWOT of a Team

Strengths: more heads are better than one, get work accomplished faster

Weaknesses: rely on setting up a group time and place to meet, rely on people to do their share of the work

Opportunities: higher grade on work

Threats: Not having someone complete their part, bad presentation

Belbin North America / Team Roles. (n.d.). Belbin North America Improving Teams RSS. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://www.improvingteams.com/using-the-nine-belbin-team-roles-for-team-development/

Alfred State College Culture

Schein’s four key organizational culture factors are: myths and stories, symbols and artifacts, rituals and language. He advocates that task interdependence requires coordination and synchronization in order for the work groups to accomplish goals. He includes examination of the situational levels in which leaders and workers must operate. He states that there is a level of authority that includes an organizational hierarchy, organizational structure that is controlled and coordinated, and an organizational design that indicates how work is divided and how they are to coordinate the work assigned and lateral interdependence that work as a team across the organization of accomplished goals. Schein supports that an organizational culture exists where the workers on every level share similar backgrounds, norms, values or beliefs among the members within that organization.

Definition of Organizational Culture (2007). Retrieved from http://organizationalculture101.com/definition-of-organizational-culture.html

Alfred State College is an example of an organization that possesses many cultural factors.

1) Myths and Stories

Alfred is recognized by its’ history of growth since the pioneer days. 1908 was the founding date of the early development of the college. It started as an agricultural school, but since then has blossomed into a college with a variety of opportunities. There are campus activities that surround the pioneer theme, the sports team, buildings such as the Pioneer building and the pioneer mascot. All of these build and reinforce upon the stories of Alfred since its early day settlers.

2) Symbols and Artifacts

A symbol that is important is the sign that welcomes students, faculty, and staff.

Another symbol is the Pioneer’s mascot for our sport games. Another important cultural symbol of Alfred State College is the Greeks. There are 11 recognized Greek organizations. They instill commitment to academics, and giving back to the community through community service.

2) Rituals

Rituals are one of the important aspects of Alfred State College’s culture in project-based learning. This is when students learn to work on real-world problems, and how to think. As a result of this ritual Alfred has a 99% employment and transfer rate. They offer job placement services and academic advising. Another important ritual is how the graduates hit the ground running ®. Classes are kept small so the students can have a more one-on-one with the professors. Another ritual of Alfred State College is the making of the A (featured below) at the welcome week for the freshman. Another ritual of Alfred State College is Hot Dog Day which is a fun festival with dancing, vendors of food and crafts, a parade that includes the Alfred community, as well as surrounding communities.

3) Language

Language is exampled through the student interactions. Alfred State College offers opportunities and enrollment for international students. The Alfred community is a wide mixture of Asians, Hispanics, Latinos, African Americans, mixed race, and Caucasian. Everyone can speak any language they want. We have clubs for specific cultural growth, but anyone can join. 

Alfred State | Hit the ground running. ®." Alfred State | Hit the ground running. ®. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. http://www.alfredstate.edu/.

Schein also examines leaders and workers by situational levels that indicate how they should operate within an organization. Goals, abilities, perceptions, and standards (GAPS) are methods of analysis that help leaders and workers examine their careers and satisfaction. The use of his theory and application of GAPS Analysis can help organizations examine their culture. G is the goals. Many companies are downsizing so the employee needs to examine if career ladder opportunities and if promotions later down the road will even be available.  They are encouraged to concentrate on their current job and strive to be efficient at what they are currently doing.  Leaders by giving feedback to the employee can help with this process. Schein assesses goals examining situational levels. Whenever workers, including the leaders are in a level of authority, those employees needs to understand their hierarchical level within the organization.A is for abilities.  Everyone needs to assess their strengths and weaknesses, but particularly a person in a leadership position. They need to strive to be satisfied in the position they are currently working. Schein feels that abilities are examined by good leaders and followers know their strengths and weaknesses within the organizational structure. The structure is the way an organization coordinates and controls the activities within. P is for perception. Strong leaders and workers are able to recognize how their abilities, skills and behaviors affect others, and work at improving. According to Schein this has a strong influence upon the success of leaders, as well as workers to be able to divide up the workload and have all divisions of the company work together.  The perception of the employees about each other can hinder or enhance the success of the organizational design. S is for standards.  Strong leaders gather data about themselves from others and use that feedback to develop their abilities to a higher level. This process can directly affect the organization’s lateral interdependence. Schein states that the degree of coordination between the different divisions within an organization directly affects the ability to achieve goals successfully.

Ultimately each person needs to decide what goals are for them by gathering data about themselves from others and taking their advice. They need to actively work on their abilities and be aware of how they are perceived by others. Their goals and abilities need to be congruent with the organization’s standards correlating with the job opportunities.

Definition of Organizational Culture (2007). Retrieved from http://organizationalculture101.com/definition-of-organizational-culture.html

IKEA

IKEA is a very successful company originally from Sweden that concentrated on manufacturing and retailing with the focus on a corporate philosophy that a person’s home is the most important place. IKEA is an adhocracy culture. They are dynamic and changing, foster creativity, entrepreneurship, and staying on the cutting edge. The creator of IKEA enhances the culture by hiring co-workers who are supportive, work well in teams, look for new ways to be innovative, better ways of doing things, respecting their views, establishing mutual objectives, making cost consciousness a priority, simplicity, leading by example, and having a diverse workforce. These cultural factors make leaders more motivated and they are encouraged to look outside the box. They encourage a democratic and non-hierarchical management structure, encouraging all employees to openly communicate.

     In recent times IKEA has found the internet a positive force in fostering social and impromptu meetings around the world. They reinforce dynamism and collegiality between all employees on every level. The company’s leaders strive every day to make a good impression on all their workers the first time and every time to help them come back to work every day feeling motivated and positive. The leader’s desire is to make the IKEA spirit strong and a living reality with the focus on simplicity as a tradition.  Happiness is promoted by the leaders as a continuous goal to strive for.

There is a strong focus on customer satisfaction but with minimal frills. Customers come to the store to buy products in a warehouse environment with little or no customer assistance. The company offers no fancy store front presentations or window displays, but the customers apparently accept and like the process and continue to come back to purchase more products. IKEA has become a worldwide successful company.

Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2013). Leadership: enhancing the lessons of experience. Homewood, IL: Irwin.

Ikea Reinforces Its Corporate Philosophy (2007). Retrieved from http://www.employeefactor.com/?p=71

Motivational Style DQ

1   

      1. The best motivational style that a manger should use on me is structure and organization. I like things to be predictable, ordered and planned. I love routine, focus on timelines and deadlines and work through each plan diligently. Structure formed by routines and timelines help motivate me. I have impatience with errors, and my detail orientation is maintaining my progress and my productivity.

2    2. Empowerment is the style I would use to motivate others. Empowerment is a very effective way to get people to cooperate and support the message you are trying to get across. If an employee is empowered they will be self-determined, develop a sense of meaning, high competence in their abilities, and high influence. An employee that lacks empowerment will not be determined, sure if what they do is important, and be low in competence abilities and influence (Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J., 2013).

3    3.  I am intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. I used to be just strictly intrinsically motivated. I loved being by myself and hated working in groups. But since I have come to Alfred State I have grown in myself and have become more extrinsically motivated. I love having lots of friends, I do not dislike working in groups, and I enjoy being social.

4    4. The most motivational speaker/experience I have ever had is when I went to hear Al Gore. Before I went to see him I was not really interested in environmental issues with the Earth, but after I listened to him I actively started to care and became a huge environmentalist. The way he presented his message really motivated me.

Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2013). Leadership: enhancing the lessons of experience. Homewood, IL: Irwin.

SWOT of Me

1. Your findings of strengths and areas for improvement on your ability to build credibility and trust as a leader.

Strengths:

Trustworthy

Ethical

Protect confidentiality information

Follow through with commitment

Excellent communication skills

Developed strong boundaries

Practice a healthy lifestyle

Provide a supportive environment

Weaknesses:

Strongly standing up for what I believe in

Build more confidence (improving)

Being more persistent

Learn how to relax

Heighten brainstorming techniques

Need to better control feelings of overwhelmed

Too passive related to my rights 

I considered myself to be credible because I am trustworthy, dependable, and consistent following through with commitments that lead to success. Since I started college I have achieved high quantities of personal growth and development. My increase in personal growth has had a direct effect upon me being more credible. It is amazing what I have experienced while living in the culture of college life. Just by taking classes, learning more skills, living on my own, and even a simple thing like participating in a Zumba class has had an effect on my personal growth, therefore increasing my credibility.

However, personal growth can be painful for me when I develop through a hard, challenging experience where I am forced to face my own weaknesses. I used to be resistant and scared to new experiences and ideas, but now I have discovered I like to experience new things and continue to grow and mature. The more experiences I commit to the more growth and learning has occurred by finding out how things are connected, I have become more observant, developed more confident, feel less self-conscious, have less anxiety, make new friends, connect at a deeper level with people, learn to trust people more and improve me ability to work better in a team approach.

Eventually with more course work completed I look forward to a mentoring opportunity to further tune my understanding of the profession. I am looking forward to getting a job where I can utilize my education and new found credibility.

2. What do you see as the most important skills and attributes for a leader to build credibility and trust?

Being trustworthy

Follows through on commitment

Great communication skills

Passion

Focus

Effectively listening skills

Being assertive

Learning to say no

Persistence

Manage stress well

Strong delegation skills

Make priorities

Organized

3. Profile a leader that you have worked with that in your estimation demonstrates a strong ability to influence others because of their credibility and trust.

I am familiar with a female who has within the past 2 years obtained a job as a leader.  She has strong credibility and her followers have trust in her abilities. She has strong ethics and is very empathetic towards others and considerate of others’ points of view. She is immature in her leadership skills, but has insight into her limitations and realizes she is using a trial and error process, but is able to evaluate the outcome and learn from her mistakes.

     One of her weakest abilities is following through. She will determine to take action, assesses the situation, but then is weak in delegation and commitment to see the process through.  Her inability to determine priorities leads her to start many action projects, not delegate to others, and she attempts to do each step herself. She becomes overwhelmed and finds there are not enough hours in a day to complete everything that needs to be done. Many times she needs repetitive reminders about continuing the process of the action she has chosen to pursue because she becomes distracted and forgets. Therefore she becomes a disorganized leader.

    She is well liked by her followers with positive personality traits and desires, but sometimes is viewed as weak and lacking leadership skills because of her lack of delegation and her trust in her followers’ abilities. I think that with a strong mentor to help her see her weak areas she has the capabilities and the strengths of being an outstanding leader.