Discussion and Respond - Culture and gender issue in Management

Discuss the following in your discussion post, referencing a Cross-Cultural conflict situation:

Using a past or present cross-cultural conflict situation that is in your organization, department or your business (feel free to change the name of the organization as well), operating as a diversity consultant, complete the following questions:


a)    Describe your own assumptions about motivation. Frame this as the leader/manager/team supervisor. Why do you think that people work today?  How do your own assumptions about motivation work in a cross-cultural workforce?

b)   Name one of the "models on motivation" (either from the book or other resource-remember to cite and reference too) and why you feel in a cross-cultural workplace, the motivational model may or may not work.  

c)  In today's workplace, what ideas do you have to keep the team motivated and why could you motivate others to work for your company (either a company you currently work for or if you are a business owner)?

For the discussion - Minimum 150 words Maximum 250

And respond to the following discussions:

Student A

I believe there are many factors that motivate people. The first motivating factor is money. In today's society, money is a deciding factor in just about everything we do. It motivates us to work hard, put in extra hours, and is an overall incentive to continue doing something we might not necessarily like. The next motivating factor that I assume encourages people is status. We are brought up with the idea that it is important to be an individual and to make a name for our self. We have been taught the importance of being the "best" or the "top" in our field. In my opinion, most people do not feel complete satisfaction in their career until they have moved up on the organizational ladder. As a store leader, I feel it is important to understand what motivates employees. You want to gain insight on how they work and why they work. You also want to discover what you can contribute to the organization to provide a motivating environment. 

The two-factor motivation theory describes extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Extrinsic factors are what demotivates people. It is important for employees to feel motivated by their environment, co-workers, supervisors, and salary. If they become unhappy due to any of these factors it will likely be reflected in their work. Intrinsic motivators include the work itself, responsibility, recognition for a job well done, achievement, and advancement (Alder, pp. 188, 2008). These factors are seen as incentives for employees.

There are many ways to motivate employees. You can promote a healthy work environment by acknowledging employees for their accomplishments and making them feel valued. It is also important to have an open line for communication. Employees should feel like they can come talk to you the moment they start feeling unsatisfied.

Student B

My assumption about motivation is a way encourage people to fulfill passion into work, it is more like win-win situation, when company or any team motivate people, they can create more value and productive for this company but also they can improve themselves as personal. I believe people working today, one of most important reason is living, they need money to have good life, but also here are some people they want to recognized by other people, they want to be self-sublimation. My assumption about motivation work in a cross-culture workforce is make them feel comfortable when they working at different culture or environment, because they might get used to work at their own culture environment, so motivating work should make them feel comfortable and encourage them to working as hard as they work at their own home. One of motivation model I learned is Maslow Model, this model tells people when they at different level they will have different satisfaction, I think this model is important because when need understand people are different, some people working for money, but some people working for self-actualization, we should motivate people based on their demand. My Idea about in today's workplace, let everybody participate and make them believe he/she is an important part of team is important to keep motivated. Also, understand different culture is very important to keep cross-culture team motivated, understand them, make them satisfaction, feel comfortable at work environment are all important to keep them motivated.

For the repond - Minimum 100 words Maximum 150