THEORIES OF MOTIVATION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION - Essay Example Their work has become generally predictable with little or no challenge, especially with the supervisor involving himself at the floor level for telling the workers what to do, and often doing it himself. The workforce needs motivation to get out of its present de-motivated state. Maslow’s theory of motivation with its emphasis on analyzing individual needs and psychological factors will help to find solution. This contrasts with Herzberg’s or McGregor’s theories that place greater importance on situation analysis and management style respectively. Key words: Motivation, Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor, needs, psychological factors, Theory X, Theory Y, Gen Xers, Millennials, relationship, team-spirit. Case Study: Sun-2-Shade - Theories of Motivation Case summary The Sun-2-Shade case reflects the situation whereby workers do not feel motivated in spite of the business flourishing, good pay and a supportive supervisor. The significant descriptive words in the case like boring job, resenting supervisor help and late-coming clearly point to the estrangement between the supervisor and his workers, who are said to be around his age group (Gen Xers and Millennials). There is an absence of team-spirit, no sense of belonging or accepting responsibility for their lackadaisical attitude. One needs to analyze the case in the light of theory of motivation vis-a-vis the supervisor’s approach and characteristics of the age group of the workers/supervisor. Using Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation Maslow’s hierarchical nature of human needs point to what motivates a person at a particular stage of his/her career. For example, people at the bottom of the 7-stage pyramid of the hierarchy value the basic physiological needs more. When the lower stage needs are met, the relevant factors lose their importance as motivators and a higher degree of motivating factors come into play, which are more psychological nature. Thus, as they move up to, f or example, the fourth stage, self-worth and self-esteem become more relevant as ‘needs’ – in other words, motivating factors (Martin and Jumis, 2007, pp.72-75). Significantly, Sun-2-Shade workers seem to be yearning for such recognition having already achieved secure jobs, good pay and working in a progressive/growing company. A word about the interaction of the age factor is relevant. The supervisor and the workers are of the age group – Gen Xers (born 1965-‘76 period) and Millennials (born 1977-‘98 period) (Thielfoldt and Scheef, 2004). Obviously, the age group is a mix of the seniors of the former and juniors of the latter categories. Gen Xers prefer ‘flexibility and freedom’ while Millennials value ‘structured, supportive environment’ but can ‘expect and demand more’ (ibid.). Hence there are subtle differences in the groups of workers and this can point to the solution to the problem. Using Herzberg a nd McGregor theories Herzberg’s two factor motivation theory proposed that hygiene factors have the ability to reduce dissatisfaction while motivators increase job satisfaction (Anon., n.d, online). The hygiene factors like pay and benefits, job security, working conditions, company policies, etc. determine how an individual rates his job/employer against his own expectations. In the process of such assessment, the individual is less concerned about his own credentials and more concerned with what he is getting out of the job. The better the hygiene factors the more the satisfaction level, which then works as the basis for the motivators. The motivators like work content, recognition, promotion etc. help an individual to gain a sense of job satisfaction. Hence, the Herzberg theory supports the view that motivation cannot be achieved if the underlying hygiene factors are ignored. McGregor’

African American-European American Iat Essay Example for Free

African American-European American Iat Essay The version of the IAT, that I chose to take is the African American – European American IAT. There were a few steps in order to complete the test; the first step was to fill out information about myself. The questions that I answered were related to my age my educational status, nationality, religious beliefs and my current state of employment. The next step of the test was to choose either ‘E,† or ‘I,† to indicate my choice of African American for a picture of a African American or European American for a picture of a European American. The next series of questions asked me to select either African American grouped with â€Å"bad,† or European American with â€Å"good’. Another series of questions was visually posed this time with, African American grouped with good and European American grouped with bad. The results show that data suggests a strong automatic preference for European American’s compared to African Americans. My automatic preference was toward European Americans. The results of this test aren’t very surprising to me. In class we were told how the test would go, so I already knew what to expect. There was a small bit of doubt whether or not the test would indicate a strong preference for one or the other at all though, because I am Hispanic. I would have speculate that based on the fact that I grew up primarily in white suburbia in a private school that almost exclusively consisted of all white students, that my preference is a subconscious choice. I am most familiar with European Americans therefore I chose them over African Americans. There is a distinction between implicit attitudes and explicit attitudes, that distinction is simple. Implicit attitudes are the attitudes that we don’t think about, they are automatic. Explicit attitudes are the attitudes that are consciously controlled. According to Gawronski and Bodenhausen, in the text, Social Psychology,†Our automatic implicit attitudes regarding someone or something often differ from our consciously controlled, explicit attitudes†(p.51). From the results of the IAT that I took, I would have to say that my implicit attitudes towards African Americans, do not match my explicit attitudes about African Americans. The reason that I believe that my implicit attitudes are different from my explicit attitudes is that I usually make a conscious decision to be friendly and welcoming to any person that I come in contact with regardless of gender, race, age, or sexual orientation. The results are mildly surprising, however, I believe that I am more accustomed to being in the company of European Americans, and therefore I show a distinct implicit attitude favoring them. Implicit attitudes are a dangerous thing; we should pay particular attention to how we label people explicitly, so that with time, we can manipulate our unconscious attitudes and impulse reactions to certain people. A good example of problems that people run into with their improper mind set comes to us from our text, Social Psychology. Age is the example Bugental and Hehman used in 2007, when they discovered that people treat the elderly differently than they do people whom are younger, they explain that â€Å"People’s perceptions of the elderly- as generally kind but frail, incompetent, and unproductive- predispose patronizing behavior†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (p. 308). It’s that attitude that people hold about the elderly that according to Bugental and Hehman, â€Å"predispose patronizing behavior, such as baby-talk speech that leads elderly people to feel less competent and act less capably’ (p. 308). It is important that we change our thinking, because if we continue to have the same biases, we not only do our selves a disservice in being implicitly and or explicitly inappropriate in our attitudes, but we also risk the chance of hurting others in our actions. Works Cited Myers, D. C. (2010). Social psychology (10th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. Pages 51,308 Psych 312 Extra Credit 10pts 5-8-13 Eli J. Guymon Gender – Career IAT The second test that I took was the gender – career IAT. Before the test began, I was asked to report my beliefs about women versus men in the work force and women versus men in the home life. The second set of questions asked me to fill out information about myself. The questions that I answered were, what is my age, my educational status, nationality, religious beliefs and my current state of employment. Following those questions were questions about my family growing up, they wanted to know if I had a mother as a primary care giver, and if she worked outside of the home, specifying what she did for a living, and if there was a secondary caregiver, such as a father or step father, where they employed outside the home, and what their occupation was. The next step of the test was to choose either ‘E,† or ‘I,† to indicate my choice. The groupings in the first series of visual concepts to match were men’s names with the word men and women’s names with the word women. The next step was to match men with career minded words and women with household related words. Finally in the final sets of matching words the groupings were reversed so that men and household related items were a pair and women with career minded words belonged together. According to the results, data suggested little or no association between male and female with career and family. I did not have a automatic preference. My explicit and implicit attitudes match, I do not consciously nor do I subconscious place anyone in a group that favors either individual in the work place or family. I am not surprised by my results because I was raised in a home where my mother was a primary care giver but I also received care giving from my step father. Both my mother and my step father worked outside of the home. Both my mother and my step father shared responsibilities equally except where one person seemed to enjoy a task more than the other, that partner would assume say a specific domestic role that the other was happy to not have to do. For an example of a domestic role that both of my parents needed to be done but one seemed to favor it over the other, grilling outside, was my step fathers domestic role because my mother did not enjoy doing that work, and my step father rarely did his own laundry, because it was a task that my mother felt comfortable doing by herself.

Garbage Laws :: English Literature Essays

Garbage Laws Garbage Laws, a Narritive Essay The town of Kabawaga, where I live, has some very strict garbage bylaws that were first introduced some ten years ago in an effort to use new recycling guidelines and to save money as authorities at that time stated that the landfills were almost at capacity. And what started out as a conservation measure has now escalated into a stack of â€Å"garbage laws† for our community. The town claimed that it was progressing as each year saw a new bylaw regulating garbage come into effect. Every year more was expected from the taxpayer in abidance to these new bylaws and the town appointed officers to enforce them, who went out and gave out fines to taxpayers not obeying the garbage law. I saw many neighbor get cited for taking their garbage out to the curb too early. The law states that garbage must be taken to curbside after 6:00pm the night before pickup. I suppose that's fine if you have a daytime job. Did anyone at town hall ever hear of shift-workers? The most recent change, just passed last week by town council prohibits putting plastic bottles in a plastic bag. Now all plastic bottles must be taken out to curbside in an open top square plastic recycle box provided by the town for five dollars. Plastic bottles that are not in this box will not be picked up and violators will be fined according to the channel 7 news report I saw. And so, this year we already have another new nonsense bylaw. And why are these laws nonsense? This list explains it: there can be no more than five garbage cans out at one time at any one residence, no cans can be put out to curbside until six p.m. the day before pickup, all garbage must be tightly wrapped in a clear plastic garbage bag, no oil bottle, paint cans, or other chemical bottles are allowed with regular garbage, no sand, concrete, or rocks allowed in garbage, no cardboard allowed except only twice a year at special pickup time, newspapers must be bundled with string only, no tape, and put out separately every second week, and no metal except twice a year. All appliances such as old broken refrigerators, stoves and washers etc. must be called in by appointment. Furniture must also be called in. Wood can’t be longer than four-foot sections and must be bundled with string.

Trinidad and Tobago and Monthly Production Target

Exercise: Chapter 1 Assignment 1 Application 14 Refer to figure 1. 4 on page 12 of your text. Use this figure to rate each of the following scenarios. Record beside each scenario your choice (a, b, c, d) and explain fully your choice. High in effectiveness and high in efficiency high in effectiveness and low in efficiency low in effectiveness and high in efficiency low in effectiveness and low in efficiencyScenario #1 : The Production Manager of Mom's Cookies had a monthly production target of 100,000 bags of cookies. His target for quality inspectors is to have the reject rate less than 2% of production. Both these targets were met for August. Labor costs are up 5% because overtime had to be incurred to complete some orders,Both goals were met but unfortunately labor costs went up. Scenario #2: The reject rate for Mom's Cookies was 8% this month. The normal target is less than 2%.The problem was traced too poorly maintained oven which burnt a number of batches before the problem was rectified. Addition costs were incurred to fix the equipment problem as well as extra costs associated with the Ingredients to make the replacement batches. The company however did make their monthly target of 100,000 bags of cookies. B,The company wasted resources but however they did reach their monthly goals which was 100,000 bag of cookies. Scenario #3: The month end reports for Mom's Cookies have Just been received by the ProductionManager. They show that during the month of September, the company product 101 ,050 bags of cookies. The reject rate was 1%. Labor and raw materials were within budgeted levels. No breakdown of equipment occurred. A,Goals were achieved no breakdown of the equipment,no wasted resources and high productivity. Scenario #4: to be hired. There was not enough time to train these people and projection levels suffered. Only 95,080 bags of cookies were produced this month. The reject rate was 1. 9%.Labor and raw materials were within budgeted levels. C,There was no wasted products but goals were not achieved. Scenario #5: Mom's cookies imports their chocolate chips from Trinidad and Tobago. Unfortunately their dollar has increased in value against the Canadian dollar which has driven up chocolate costs by 10%. In addition, gas prices have gone up and the company uses gas ovens and gas heating. This has added another 5% to the company's expenses. The reject rate was 1. 8% and the company produced 100,200 bags of cookies.

Cultural relativism Essay

Cultural relativism is the view that all cultures that is beliefs, customs and ethics are relative the individual within his social context. It simply means what is right or wrong is culture specific because what may be considered moral in one society may be considered immoral in another. Therefore, because there is no universal measure to standards of morality in the society, no one has the right to judge the other on what is wrong or right (Martin 1950). According to Kenneth (1981) an anthropologists, no culture is superior to the other, for example you cannot be allowed to condemn a terrorist community or vampires or night runners as evil. Cultural relativism sees nothing inherently wrong or good in any cultural set up. Therefore, viewing one culture as immoral due to their moral beliefs could be seen as ethnocentrism. Cultures are diverse and even those with conflicting moral beliefs should not be viewed in terms of right and wrong or good and bad. We can therefore conclude that cultural relativism is being widely accepted in modern anthropology. Cultural relativism has touched on all aspects of life and computers and information technology has not been spared either. Computer revolution has necessitated the need for future global ethics or information ethics. Computers through information technology and the internet have created a global community. With the creation of global community and therefore giving rise to the need for unification of moral systems or what has been referred to as global ethics. Therefore, unifying ethical rules have to be constructed within a cyberspace that can serve a new global ethic. Cultural relativism has had great influence on computer ethics especially on information technology. The main affected areas are privacy, intellectual property rights and freedom of information. Information ethics could be looked at from cross cultural and inter cultural contexts. In cross cultural context differences exist between moral systems of different cultures which have very important implications for moral attitudes towards uses of information and information technology. In intercultural information ethics context we reflect moral questions regarding information technology and use of information on the basis of different cultural conditions. This should be focused comparative study of moral systems. Its overall aim would be to interpret compare and critically evaluate moral systems in different cultures regarding their moral attitudes and behavior towards information and information technology (Brey 2007). We need to specifically look into these three areas that is privacy, freedom of information and intellectual property rights whose ethics differ is relative especially between western and non western countries. These countries have different policies regarding the ethics governing those three issues due to different moral attitudes on information systems. Privacy of information is well instituted in some countries while in others there are no policies governing privacy. Privacy is an individual right, however such right may not be recognized in countries that belief in collective interests which take priority over individual rights. For example in non western countries like china Japan and Thai have no concept of privacy. So probably privacy laws let alone on information are not enacted (Martin 1950). For instance, what they refer as private sphere in Thai and Japan has different meaning in western countries (David 2006). In china, a word close to privacy is â€Å"yinsi† which means â€Å"shameful secret† and is associated with shameful things. In Japan, they have a word for private, â€Å"watakusi† meaning partial’, secret and selfish (Bao and Xiang 2006). Although these words have started to take the privacy meaning in the recent past due to western influence, the individual rights have not been well implemented in those countries. Japan, china and Thai have only recently implemented privacy laws; however though Thai privacy laws are hardly enacted may be due to western influence. This cannot be narrowed to those countries only, there are many more through out the world who believe in collective recognition due to their cultural beliefs (Brey 2007). Intellectual property rights are another issue characterizing the revolution of computers. This touches on those individuals and companies that develop soft ware and other applications and who feel that there intellectual property should be protected by for example copyrights. In the west the governments are keen on protecting such rights, unlike, taking a case study of china where due to communist rule such property is not protected by the government. To them all means of production like farms and factories are communally owned until very recently. However due to economic reforms and increased interaction with the west they have had to institute IPRs (intellectual property rights) only to harmonize Chinese economic systems with the rest of the world. China is still struggling with this concept up to date. In such countries which have communist culture, piracy cannot be labeled as crime but copyrights and patents are viewed as selfishness (Paul 1955). Freedom of information is another issue that has displayed an aspect of cultural relativism in computers. Freedom of information comprise two principles: freedom of speech which is expressing ones opinion or ideas in speech freely or in writing and secondly freedom of access to information. Freedom to express one self through publication can be viewed as the third principle (Brey 2007). In western countries freedom of information is basically a constitutional and inalienable right to every individual. The government can only be allowed to sensor information in extreme cases like hate speech and information undermining national security. In such countries people post all types of information on the internet and it is upon the parent and other individuals to protect their children from information that should not be accessible to the children especially pornography and bad eating habits (Paul 1955). On the contrary in other non western countries freedom of information is not a guiding principle and there are many practices interfering with freedom of information. This is because of their reserved culture or their religious beliefs. In these countries the internet, databases and libraries are censored especially when they are accused of disseminating â€Å"inappropriate† information to the society. Mass media being government owned, they see it as the right thing to do to protect its citizens and ensure they have access to the â€Å"right† information (Brey 2007). The values of privacy, freedom of information and intellectual property are central in analyzing cultural relativity in computer world and information ethics. In western world information is accessible to everyone and there is respect for individual information ethics and is not concentrated on morality that is the values that are central in western information ethics are not the values central in many non western systems of morality (David 2006). We can immensely conclude that cultural relativism is true for computers through information systems. In conclusion, cultural relativism touches on every aspect of human life and in the recent part it is becoming more widely acceptable. The value systems of different countries influence the way they perceive computer and information ethics. At least two different approaches to morality are found in the world; a virtue centered morality that emphasizes good for the community and are found in traditional cultures like southern and eastern Asia and in Africa, and rights center morality that that stresses value of individual freedom like the west. Despite the modern technology and some expected rules to play along like Christianity, cultural relativism is here to stay and it is really gaining ground despite its challenges. Reference: Bao, X & Xiang, Y. (2006). Ethics and information digitalization: Digitalization and global ethics Journal. (8), 41-47. Brey, P. (2007). Global information ethics and the challenges of cultural relativism. New York: SAGE. David, Wong (2006). A defense of pluralistic relativism. New York: Oxford University Press. Kenneth, E. Goodpaster. (1981). Relativism in ethics. New York: HBS Case Services. Martin, Gardner. (1950). Beyond Cultural Relativism. Ethics Journal, (1):38-45. Paul, F. Schmidt (1955). Some Criticisms of Cultural Relativism. Journal of Philosophy, (25):780-791.

Slavery In Ancient Rome essays

Slavery In Ancient Rome essays During the time of slavery, if i was a slave i probably would've been able to use the many talents and skills to help the Romans in their pursuits.Of course i would have been sold to highest bidder and my destiny would be determined by my attributes and the needs of my new master.One of the major considerations,what if i didnt obey my master? what then The Origins of Slavery. Slavery began as it was commonly practiced throughout all Ancient history. However, as Rome became dependent upon slave labor and wars ceased, other methods of acquiring slaves became necessary.For example slaves were encouraged to have children in order to provide a continous supply of slaves to their master.Slaves were bought and sold in markets.Some slaves were captured in wars.The slave population was very large.So large it made up 30% of the population.Slavery started early and grew very fast due to the many wars and poor people. The Condition of Slavery.Slave men were often treated as part of the family and with trust and respect.For example some slaves were given many privileges, comforts and were treated better than most people would have imagined.Slaves worked on farms,buildings and businesses.Those that worked on farms produced the food and other materials on which the cities depended, slaves that worked in business managed the shops for absentee owners and those that worked on public buildings were working on the aqueduct systems, roads, and the arenas.Slaves that were given privileges was probably the best that could happen to them, even though the people depended on slaves for nearly everything they still treated them like slaves. Slavery Conditions Cont'd.Some Slaves rebelled.Those that did would do so by trying to run away and escape when they were caught they were branded with the word FUG(fugitivus) on his forehead.Of course when slaves did't do what their master ordered them to do, they were punished severely ...

Psychodynamic Theory Rooted In Freud Essay

Psychodynamic Theory Rooted In Freud Essay Psychodynamic Theory Rooted In Freud Essay Psychodynamic theory rooted in Freud’s theory of personality, he suggested that the ego acts as mediate to strike a balance between the primitive desires represented by the id and the moral and social constrains represented by the superego. (Siegel, 2005) The extreme guilt resulting from harsh superego is a source of crime, since the behaviour aiming at being caught to decrease the feeling of guilt. A weak superego reflected in inability to delay immediate gratification. The deviant superego, for example, will make a son raised by a criminal father feel acceptable and perform the criminal acts that father would engaging in, since the internalization of same sex parent as a moral regulator is a critical role of superego. (Newburn, 2007)And then Bowlby(1944) developed the idea about early separation of a child from its mother, suggested that the maternal separation will lead to difficulties in an inability to form functional social relationship, since the attachment bond as th e is the prototype for all future relationship. When apply to crime, basing on the research showing that almost 39% of the group of juvenile delinquency has the disruption of maternal relationship, Bowlby suggests that impaired ability to relate to other could result in both affectionless psychopathy and psychologically immature characterised by inability to delay gratification which are related to later criminal behaviour, specifically the Oedipus complex can result in a number of unconscious criminal acts. (Bowlby, 1951) Moreover, Glueck and Glueck (1950)largely developed psychodynamic theory of delinquency and crime, which is he tentative causal formula reflecting Freudian ther and their empirical findings including the 500 delinquent research. They suggests that the poor parenting practices and parental modelling, and the pursuit of self-interest are the core factors leading to the weak internal controls regarded as a weak superego. Psychodynamic theory has pointed out the importance of early life experiences, especially parenting. However, it fails to test empirically while it focuses on internal conflicts and unconscious processes. (Howitt, 2011) The major critic, Wotton (1959) argued that the quality of the relationship is important, and the possibility of the reverse of separation should be considered. While Rutter (1972) argued that the psychodynamic theory is not easily tested while it bases on the unconscious mind. First of all, the psychodynamic theory is reductionist approach, since while psychodynamic theory simplifies complex human behaviour to the mechanics of the mind; for example, the ego strength is used to measure a person’s ability to control itself. Secondly, the psychodynamic theory is determinist while it suggests that people have no free will to decide how they behave. Thirdly, the Freud’s theory it is difficult to falsify, and a good theory can be tested to see if it is wrong (Popper, 1935), while Freud’s assumption focuses on unconscious mind. Next, move to learning theory. ‘It is widely accepted that children and adult may learn effectively from the actions of another person through a process of imitation.’ (Howitt, 2011). Behaviour theory views that human behaviour is developed through learning experience. And this kind of imitation is first regarded as a form of vicarious learning as Miller and Dollard (1941) suggested. When apply learning theory to criminology, it can be seen that the family and socio-economic, peer, school and community are the core risk factors increasing the probability of offending, which are the objects being modelled after. (Kazdin et al. 1997) Sutherland (1939) put forward the differential association learning theory, suggesting that the learning of the attitudes supporting crime and the specific behaviour for committing crimes are the two prerequisites within he family and peer group for a person to develop into an offender.(Akers, 1966) Albert Bandura developed the idea into the social