Posted: April 14th, 2022

“There is definitely a direct connection between finding your passion

5.2 Employee Motivation Responses

Joshua Burkman

“There is definitely a direct connection between finding your passion and reaching your potential” (Maxwell, 2012, p. 21). How many of us are actually at a company where our true passion is being engaged? For most of my life, I have stayed at a company or moved to another for a monetary gain to better my family’s comfort level. My current position as an active duty military vehicle mechanic is no exception. I took the job because it afforded me more time and better custody arrangements with my children. My motivation has always been my family, regardless of my passion, but I am currently working towards my passion vigorously to become an instructor of leadership at a collegiate level.

Currently, the only reward system at my organization is a paycheck and follows the vertical operational model described by (Middlebrooks et al., 2020, p. 235). A salary is currently my only motivation as it allows me to pay bills and get needed supplies to support my family. The Air Force has an Enlisted Performance Report (EPR), a yearly evaluation system that recommends us for promotion and explains our organizational growth, personal growth, and community involvement (Template Roller, n.d.). The EPR is what senior leadership pushes as the holy grail of concentration and investment if we intend to get promoted. The problem with this system is that everyone is ranked equally, despite their growth rate or lack of growth rate. This practice allows for the “good ole boy” club to still exist and allows leadership to promote whoever they want into a position, despite having the proper skills for the job. The most recently promoted was an individual who only does the bare minimum, does not grow personally in his skill set, and does nothing to engage in the community. Three other applicants were more qualified and better suited for the position. Yet, with the failure in the EPR system, leadership put into place someone of questionable character and malleable to their personal goal. The current practice does not effectively rate personnel individually and affects the team mentality when co-workers realize that hard work does not pay off. It creates resentment towards leadership and animosity towards each team member.

My suggestions for future improvement of the system would be to have someone objective to the organization choose the best employee based on the EPR and interview process. The current subjective choices made give an unfair advantage to the individuals who are personal friends with leadership. Another step to help our organization would be to adhere to the job characteristics model Erdogan and Bauer (2012) explain to be “the most influential attempts to design jobs with increased motivational properties“ (p. 248). Regardless of getting promoted, it would be beneficial for morale to have other motivational factors besides a paycheck.

References

Erdogan, B., & Bauer, T. (2012). An introduction to organizational behavior (v. 1.1). Flat world knowledge Inc. https://2012books.lardbucket.org/pdfs/an-introduction-to-organizational-behavior-v1.1.pdf

Maxwell, J. C. (2012). The 15 invaluable laws of growth. Center Street Hachette Book Group.

Middlebrooks, A., Allen, S. J., McNutt, M. S., & Morrison, J. L. (2020). Discovering Leadership: Designing your success. SAGE Publishing.

Template Roller. (n.d.). AF Form 910 “Enlisted Performance Report (AB Thru TSGT)”. Template Roller. https://www.templateroller.com/template/1862106/af-form-910-enlisted-performance-report-ab-thru-tsgt.html

Latanya Richardson

Some of the things my company has done in the past to keep us motivated was twice a week; we had morning huddles to recognize a team member and a student. Also, on non-pay weeks, they will either provide lunch or breakfast for us. We also have a prayer circle on Wednesday mornings before school. Depending on the supervisor, they may reward you with a Starbucks gift card if they ask you to do little things like sub at the last minute. However, usually, it is up to the teachers to find their coverage, and when I have to find my own, I usually provide lunch the same day. Then on my team specifically, my director likes to do fun bonding things like going to Topgolf, bowling, or a break-out room, and we try to do these once a month. I think it is effective when it is consistent or when we step out of our comfort zone and do things that we usually would not do for the team’s sake or get to know other teachers or students so that the same person is not being chosen all the time. I know that when the same person is being chosen repeatedly, the bar is set so high that others have to try extra hard to reach it, and even if they do, they still may not be recognized because they seem to only focus on the star player. Sometimes people may only want to focus on their personal goals to help them grow and get ahead at work. Even quarterly, when we review our data, the team that has moved the data the most splits a $2000 Amazon gift card. The problem with that is that they did not consider the help that the interventionists have done to help move their data, so it has been much backlash on this process. I feel the best practice that will work best for my company would be to be all on the same page and do things equally and consistently. I do like the two-factor theory. They ask what satisfies them on the job and what does not can work by asking what type of rewards they will want. I know for my department generally, we usually go over and beyond to make sure that we do something exciting to recognize everyone and do something once a month outside of the building to build culture and relationships.

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Employee Motivation Responses, Section 5.2

Burkman, Joshua

“There is undeniably a link between discovering your passion and realizing your full potential” (Maxwell, 2012, p. 21). How many of us work at a company where our true passion is being pursued? For the majority of my life, I have either stayed at one company or moved to another in order to increase my family’s comfort level. My current position as a military vehicle mechanic on active duty is no exception. I accepted the job because it provided me with more time and better custody arrangements for my children. My family has always been my motivation, regardless of my passion, but I am currently working hard to pursue my passion of becoming a collegiate leadership instructor.

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