Hi everybody. It's been a while. I've been busy. I know, I know there's no excuse, but it's the truth. Anyway, I have been busy with all my classes, the preparations, the assignments and the exams. And I also have other tasks (??) to be completed. On top of that, there are the over-the-weekend motivational courses, workshops, seminars to be attended every once in a while.
Today, I just wanted to raise some issues on motivation. By definition, motivation is the process of arousing and sustaining goal-directed behavior. So, it should provide us the excitement to improve, to make us want to achieve something. But, sometimes organizations make mistakes by giving too many motivational talks or even workshops. The organizations can also make things worse by being selective on their participants. By not including all the members of a certain department in the motivational talks, organizations instead create dissatisfactions and stress. Although in the beginning people can be excited, those who are selected again and again for similar courses would start to question the real motives behind their selection. Are they chosen because they have the potentials to be the top performers or are they actually selected because they are not performing? And they also begin to wonder why certain members of the organization whom they view as non-active are not sent to such courses. Isn't one of the objectives of giving motivation is to make people more productive? Perhaps if the organizations would offer the non-active members an equal chance of attending the motivational talks, they might respond in a positive way. In addition, the act will also create a certain kind of prestige to these motivational talks.
As an advocate of Organizational Behavior study, I understand that motivation is very important to the successful of every organization. But, too many of these talks might in the end make the members de-motivated. Think about it.
