Application Of Industrial Organizational Psychology
Two types of psychological schools include ones that are cogent, and others that are applied. Industrial psychology is an applied field of study. The basic premise of industrial psychology is the utilization of certain methodologies and other hypotheses to prevail over the problems in other areas of study, such as in businesses, corporations, and many more (Marks & Murray et al., 2005). Different researchers have different meanings applied to the concept. For example, Blum and Naylor (1968) define it as simply the application or extension of psychological facts and principles to the problems concerning human beings operating within the context of business and industry (Milton et al., 1968., p. 4). Industrial psychology helps explicate which theories or types of motivation there are, as well as why certain categories of motivation are chosen.
Job Performance & the Differing Types
First, industrial psychology is nothing more than applying psychology to organizations and the workplace. In order to complete this successfully, one must scrutinize and look into how actions and mentalities can be more efficient via genuine processes of hiring, better curriculum in the training, and improved facets of inquiry (Building Better Organizations). I believe job performance amongst others I will discuss is one of the key aspects to an organizations success or failure. Performance is done at all levels, from the entry-level workers up to the top executive officers. How well one does his or her job (job performance) could either wreak havoc or produce effective results for a company. Job implementation and its accomplishments by workers performances is a very critical facet that can relate to organizational actualizations and even positive outcomes. Campbell (1990) devised one of the more accepted performance theories.
Performance is something an individual actualizes. Second, we have adequacy. It is another facet alike which is explicated as the crux of a precise malleable phenomenon of performance, efficiency, and productivity. Industrial drive serves a bold part in achievements and success in those achievements. The key point is that performance in terms of ones job has to be germane to the desired goal. Thus, attainment is mutually exclusive to activities where intentions are dissipated in accomplishing incidental goals and desires. The last portion of job performance I will focus on is multidimensionality. Job performance is not a sole unipolar construct. Lots of employment opportunities, where each individual accomplishment standards are required. Thus, actualization in terms of ones job is conceived as a dimension with lots of variables. This facet is made up of more than a single type of behavior (Campbell, 1990).
Work Motivation:One of the Key Factors in Organizational Success and Expansion
There is no doubt that motivation is one of the most potent weapons in an employees arsenal. Motivation is what drives one to work harder, smarter, or just do the bare minimum. Reasons for one being motivated to do something is through obtaining a desired reward, such as food, money, materialistic things, goals, etc. However, Geen (1994) has noted that motivation for an action by a person may also be because of less-obvious explications, such as altruism or ethics. Furthermore, Geen (1994) postulates that motivation points out to the start, direction, thrust, and perpetuation of the behavior of people in any setting.
Types of Motivation:General & Specific
Many types of motivation exist in the workplace and in every other organization one may be helping and working for. Three general types of motivations are physiological, cognitive, and social motivation. Physiological motivation is explained by a drive to eat, have sex, sleep, etc. Cognitive motivation is more about achievements and aspirations. Social motivations, mostly uncommon or rare, have to do with affiliation motivations. There are also two types of motivation that are termed intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which are integral to understanding the full-fledged plethora of knowledge regarding how motivation plays a key role in organizations. But, there are specific types of motivation that underlie these general modes of motivation that need to be addressed.
The first specific type of motivation that I will discuss is the achievement motivation. Accomplishment motivation is the will to obtain and reach a certain goal or goals (Shah & Shah, 2010). One with the ambition to succeed desires aspirations ultimately reach achievement. There is also motivation by affiliation. Motivation by amalgamation is an inner drive to come to life with people in terms of a gregarious basis. These types of motivators are often given compliments for their outstanding working mentalities and the ability to work with others well. Competence motivation is a type of motivation which is generally looked that the persons ambition to do something well, paving way for the person to perpetrate in high valued work.
Motivation in terms of power is one of the more popular types and has often been abused and misused (Abuse Facts, 2009). Indeed, Abraham Lincoln once said, Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a mans character, give him power. Receiving power will release everything you need to know about a person. Is he or she using the power for the better of customers and employees? Is he or she using it arbitrarily in improper ways? The good thing about the motivation for power is that you can use the achievement motivation technique to reach a powerful position and lead your co-workers in a benevolent manner.
That is what I had to do when I reached the power of a supervisor in the Marine Corps. But I used the power to be able to look out for the welfare of my troops and to order troops to do humane and logical things. I never abused it. The fifth motivation type that is common and involves a lot of psychological methodologies is the attitude motivation. It is how individuals contemplate and feel emotionally. We are talking about ones self-image of ones self. The sixth motivation type is extremely common and perhaps the most common, which is the incentive motivation. Such persons do things-like high quality work-in order to obtain an award.
It is much like B.F. Skinners operant conditioning. Car salesmen work on this type of motivation because the more cars they sell, they are not only put in different positions with higher responsibilities, but they get more money because of it. Money is a big incentive award that almost everyone strives for. People need to pay bills, get food, and pay their mortgages to live under a roof. Hence, money, whether implicitly or explicitly, is a reward that every working person strives for. The only question is to what degree they strive for achievement to make money. Last, we have the motivation of fear. Abhorrence motivation forces an individual to behave against his or her will. Why is it so important? The job at hand gets done quicker and pleases the superiors, although the work may be far from adequate.
Two types of instinctual drives for motivation include intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is when people are enticed to participate in some bustle in the absence of any genuine transcendent motives, just like a hobby. Motivation that is the opposite of intrinsic is called extrinsic motivation. This occurs when an individual perpetrates in a bustle for a reward that materialistic and proves gains in the amount of lots of money. One last thing to note is that there are pluralities of roles at play which can alter the aftermath of motivation. For example, ones aptitude, commitment, intentions, persistence, fear of success, pre-ordained behavior, temptation, and being hungry all affect motivation.
Theories of Motivation:Drive-Reduction, Achievement-Motivation, Interests Driven by Instinct, Hierarchy of Human Needs, Self-Control, & the Goal-Setting Theory
Since motivation is so diverse, yet integral to organizational psychology, numerous and diverse theories of motivation have been presented to explicate the suspicions of each and why one better explains workplace issues than the others. First, there is the drive-reduction theory. According to this hypothesis, as time goes on, the potency of the drive thrives as it is not met with satisfaction. Thus, when we finally do satisfy that drive by giving it what it wants, the drives potency is reduced. McClelland devised a theory where people need three basic things. Such things include the desire for arbitrary power, desire to actualize, and one of affiliation.
A rather popular and generally obvious motivational theory has to do with people doing what interests them. If an individual has a potent likeness in one area, then coming to conclusive actualizations in that facet will be extremely strong, holding support relative to deriving conclusions in facets of fragile importance. An extremely lethal and was concocted by Maslow (1943) in what he calls the hierarchy of human needs. His so-called needs include security, civil, confidence, and the actualization of ones self.
Next, there is the self-control theory of motivation. Psychological intelligence plays a key role in the self-control of motivation. An individual may be a genius academically, but may have no motivation or drive to implement and thrive on his abilities to certain jobs. Additionally, antecedents can be explicated like a frailty or desire that stimulates ones behavior, which can be directed towards a motive or an incentive. Such aforementioned drives are commonly known to derive from inside the person and do not dictate any outside influences to entice the behavior. Basic desires and needs potentially could be caused by one being hungry, which drives a person to eat. The goal-setting theory is quite interesting and has a powerful effect to it. This goal-setting theory is much like positive reinforcement.
Choosing the Right and Efficient Type of Leadership
According to Locke and Latham (1991), leadership is organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal. (p. 131) Promulgating perceptions, hypostasizing connotations and the surrounding concocted ambience can be actualized (Richards & Engle, 1986, p. 206). While serving in the Marine Corps, you start out as a robotic-responsive individual. As one works their way up by implementing their choice of leadership skills, one notices that the responsibilities get phenomenal. My experience led me to lead as an environmental leader, which is quite unique because you are not selfishly in control of everyone with any questions asked.
Carmazzi (2005) argues that the ambiance who maintains a leader is the individual who holds favor to a certain group or other type of environment to dictate the ardent and psychological conception of a persons rank in that specific community. Unlike the other many leadership types, I was drawn to be an environment leader because I could utilize culture to motivate my troops and people, as well as preparing them to become leaders in all areas. But this style of leadership is dependent on creating an educational phenomenon, in which communities could learn interactively the basic psychology of group dynamics from one another within the culture.
But this leader must also have a strong knowledge base with psychology. This type of leader must understand psychology, certain languages, in order to sway into the path which citizens of the community were inspired by to do what is expected for the good of the whole. An environment leader believes in leadership through cooperation, not sole arbitrary power. While serving in the military, I realized how important technology and social networking were to meeting peoples individual emotional needs outside of the workplace. But this did not mean that it negatively or positively affected the way they would become leaders or followers. In order to keep up with this transfer of knowledge, technology, and other information, I had to adapt as an environmental leader.
As I progressed and took initiative on how to effectively lead in variable environments, I realized that each person has various environments that derive different aspects from their own sole, and each of these aspects is motivated by charging emotional perceptions within each environment. Not only did I have to create an algorithm through schooling and cognizance where people filled each others emotional desires and become more aware of when, and how they can alter personal and collective emotional excellence. Being an environmental leader, I accomplished this by knowing why people respond to their environment instead of acting intelligently.
Being an environmental leader is nothing regarding altering the mentality of the group or individuals under you, but in the cultivation of your surrounding that brings out the prime results and inspires the people in that community. Negate the capability to sway others to do things they are not committed to, but rather to discipline a culture that thrives on the drive and even excites people to perform what is mandated for the benefit of all. Its all about success through cooperation, not by an arbitrary leader who dictates everything including making decisions on behalf of everyone.
CONCLUSION
Motivation has a lot of power in and of itself. Deciding which particular type or theory-or plurality of types and theoriesof motivation is a hard choice, but if you scrutinize enough, you can be an effective leader in an ethical way. Leadership is not just something that someone is born with. Relative to the aforementioned theories, types, and sub-types of motivations, one can effectively learn to use those types in order to be a good leader. I was never born a leader. I was always a follower. That is, until I joined the U.S. Marine Corps. But leading does not just entail an individual that leads. It is much more. It can be a plurality of employees or people that work together to lead for the benefit of all underneath them. Industrial psychology helps explicate which theories or types of motivation there are, as well as why certain categories of motivation are chosen by employees in the workplace.
