Portland based motivation project paper and presentation

Applied Motivation Group Project

Example Paper Outline 1) Abstract

24 Hour Fitness is a fitness facility corporation. We chose to interview 3 employees at the Hollywood location who were all in the service field. All employees were intrinsically motivated to perform well at the company originally but had lost motivation through time. Motivation was lost due to the employees not feeling respected by supervisors, not being recognized and receiving poor wages and benefits. They felt that they had to do more than their job description included for a very small amount of money. We have chosen to use the cognitive evaluation theory to help these employees become intrinsically motived and excited to work again. We also are going to use the goal setting theory to help the company create more specific goals for the employees in comparison to their broad goals currently. By motivating the employee’s intrinsically and creating specific attainable goals we hope to help this keep employees excited to work. TA/Instructor Comment: I would include a sentence summarizing the solutions that you are proposing. 2) Intro

The Hollywood 24 Hour Fitness is a fitness facility that offers group classes, exercise equipment and a pool. They are one of many 24 Hour Fitness around the country. Our group interviewed three employees: a sales representative who has been with the company for three years, a membership counselor that has been with the company for four years and a kid’s club attendant who has been with the company for two years. All of these employees feel invested in this company but have motivational boundaries that we will discuss further in this paper. TA/Instructor Comment: Why is this project important to this organization (How will the organization suffer if motivation remains low)? 3) Problem Diagnosis

The most prominent motivational issue is that employees do not feel recognized for their hard work. Many employees feel that they do things that are out of their job description and do not get recognized for going above and beyond what they need to do. The lack of extrinsic motivation has resulted in a very high turnover rate. The employees that stay in their positions have to pick up the slack for the missing employees. These employees are not given any financial incentive unless they are promoted and it is very hard to be promoted when the supervisors do not recognize the employee’s hard work. The employees either lose their intrinsic motivation or leave the company from the result of not being extrinsically motivated by their superiors. 4) Theory

Interviewing with 24 Hour Fitness helped us gain an understanding that some of the employees there began their positions with positive intentions of learning about the company and the field of public health/fitness. Unfortunately, it seems that due to lacking encouragement and support from management the employees have lost interest and now view their jobs as a monotonous task rather than an opportunity to learn. Throughout our interviews we noticed that

PSY 345 – Motivation Winter 2020

Applied Motivation Group Project

the Cognitive Evaluation and Goal Setting theories were applicable to what the employees were saying about their positions. The Cognitive Evaluation theory consists of two main extrinsic motivators, which are controlling and informational. Cognitive Evaluation theory has three main propositions, which it follows, and we will use these propositions to increase motivation throughout the work environment. Proposition one states that external events affect a person are a person’s intrinsic motivation when they influence the perceived locus of causality for that behavior. Proposition two adds to that by clarifying that events that promote greater perceived competence will increase intrinsic motivation. Proposition three finishes the theory by stating that events relevant to the regulation of behavior have three different aspects with different significances.

We also decided to focus on goal-setting theory because one of the main issues at 24 Hour Fitness is not achieving recognition for work and therefore not being motivated to accomplish goals. It would be helpful if each employee had a specific list of goals that the team together could work towards. Difficult and specific goals help to enhance employee performance by encouraging persistence and strategy. Managers and higher- level staff could also be encouraged to give more feedback to their employees and potentially have a monthly or bi- monthly meeting to discuss progress and achievements towards these goals.
 TA/Instructor Comment: I would cite key scholarly work about the theory/theories you are applying. 5) Solutions

We would like to apply the Cognitive Evaluation theory by suggesting a more structured management system in which each department head is responsible for a group of employees as well as making each manager a list of their job responsibilities. This will better construct who is responsible for which employees and what they can do to motivate those specific employees and what they can do to encourage them. Feedback is the key component to Cognitive Evaluation theory and we suggest that managers meet with their employees to evaluate how they have been doing with their tasks and projects as well as encouraging the managers to develop a more empathetic relationship with their employees as they learn more about the goals and attitudes of that employee.

Because employees at 24 Hour Fitness are feeling a lack of recognition we could form some sort of bulletin board in the break room where exceptional employees could be recognized for their work during that particular month. People could leave notes to each other or anonymously to direct the employee’s attention towards certain actions or attitudes that you noticed throughout the month. At the end of each month, whichever employee had the most recognition would win some sort of prize or monetary appreciation.

For our solutions on goal setting theory we would encourage these meetings to occur monthly or bi-monthly, as previously stated, to focus on progress and achievement. It would be helpful if there were more rewards and punishments so that the company as a whole could focus more on operant conditioning. The managers and chain of command in general could instill a sense of self-efficacy in the employees and encourage them to accomplish their goals because at this point in their lives, most employees are working towards gaining experience in their chosen field for their futures. If we were able to further analyze the employees in their performance and motivational frameworks we would have a better understanding as to the more specific goals each individual would have; at this point our emphasis lies on meeting regularly with employees

PSY 345 – Motivation Winter 2020

Applied Motivation Group Project

to focus on their goals within and outside of 24 Hour Fitness. 6) Summary

The employees of 24 Hour Fitness need more encouragement, recognition and feedback to feel that keeping their job is worthwhile. Using the Cognitive Evaluation and Goal Setting theory, we think that motivation could be increased intrinsically and performance overall could improve. TA/Instructor Comment: Don’t forget to include empirical evidence to support the theory/theories you are using and/or solutions that you are proposing to address the motivational issues. Finally, make sure that you are connecting your theory, evidence, and solution to ensure that your paper is coherent and flows well.

PSY 345 – Motivation Winter 2020