Maggie Hartig
300W Spring 2013
Corporate Culture Paper
Positive Psychology: Improving the Workplace
Increasing productivity and sparking motivation in employees, are challenges that managers, businesses, and organizations have struggled with for centuries. While there are many beliefs about which method(s) yield the best results, and what is considered to be the desired result, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ management technique still does not exist. The current movement in psychology, called Positive Psychology, focuses on what is “right” in an individual, and not on their faults. This basic concept is starting to extend its influences into the workplace, making it seem that Positive Psychology may become the key ingredient corporate culture, and all places of employment alike, have needed to promote success and satisfaction in their lines of work.
In today’s business world, it seems that the major pitfall is in employees’ lack of motivation and engagement in their positions. This results in decreased productivity and satisfaction, and overall diminished views of the establishment. The relationships between employers and employees also suffer from poor morale in the workplace. According to an article by Chris Musselwhite, Creating a Culture of Motivation, the first place to start in correcting this problem, is to educate managers on the benefits of an empowered workforce, and how to effectively inspire them.
“When you get your managers to assume more responsibility for
According to researcher Lindner (1998), motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces to aid in the survival of organizations. Not only is it important to meet the needs of the consumer, it is equally important that to make sure that associates are taken care of and remain motivated. For this reason, Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly and Konopaske (2012) “states much of management’s time is spent addressing the motivation of their employees” (p. 125). According to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2007), employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity employees bring to their jobs; the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, 1988). Despite its obvious importance, employee motivation can be an elusive quest for managers due to the multiplicity of incentives that can influence employees to do their best work. The reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated and the knowledge of how to motivate them is key to organizational success. It is imperative that employers get to know the personal needs and wants of their employees in order to establish tactics in which to motivate each of them. Once achieved, “managers are in a better position to encourage and reward employees to behave in effective ways” (Gibson et al, 2012, p.
“Motivating Employees” is a book about how employee motivation is driven by companies that invest and grow their employees. One of the most important traits of highly effective and successful companies is that employees are happy and have fun at work. Leadership is not assaulting your employees, but to lead your employees you need to motivate by using caring,
The term motivation and empowerment is a universal concept that is hoped to work towards the good of any organization. Motivation and empowerment does not come from rewards to employees but instead, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Leaders who are effective in motivating and empowering their staff have acquired a great achievement, which can increase efficiency, and self development of skills and abilities. When employers are concerned about the welfare and needs of their staff, this provides trust among staff. The purpose of this paper is to compare motivation and
To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.
Another vastly used concept in management theory and practice i.e. the positive psychology pursues organisational virtues and social responsibility. Positive psychology is applied in contemporary management to facilitate social relation between a leader and his subordinates to develop a sense of security and create positive emotional states of the individuals. With smaller sized team and more freedom in work,Google Inc. keeps the employees working towards a set purpose besides instilling high levels of self- motivation and work empowerment within them. Google Inc. focuses on noble tasks and convince their employees of their significance in bringing changes and peace to the world by organising the world’s information and making life better for individuals and the society(Cook 2012).Hence,it can be observed that through positive psychology,high employee satisfaction and achievement can be gained through self-motivation,self-improvement and self-inspiration by incorporating passion in their work and align them with the organization’s own’s values.This in turns improves the company’s productivity and innovation ability which will then elevate the corporation’s social and economic status.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." By championing new and innovative methods of employee motivation, companies are satisfying this need in their
Over the last several years, the issue of employee motivation inside the workplace has been increasingly brought to the forefront. The reason why is because, globalization has been having an effect on the ability of firms to compete (which is placing more pressure on them). To deal with these challenges, most organizations are relying on their employees. The results are that those employers who are able to use this resource will be able to make adjustments quickly. This is when the firm will be able to maintain their dominance in the marketplace.
Corporate culture is refers to as the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. It 's the attitudes, standards, and beliefs that characterize members of an organization and which defines its nature. Corporate culture by definition affects a firm 's operations as information is passed from management downward and outward, through the organization. it is also stated that, a healthy company culture may increase employees ' commitment and productivity, while an unhealthy culture may inhibit a company 's growth or even contribute to a business failure. In a healthy culture, employees view themselves as part of a team and gain satisfaction from helping the overall success of a company. When employees knows that they are contributing to a successful group effort, their level of commitment and productivity, and to the quality of the company 's products or services, are likely to improve. Employees in an unhealthy culture tend to view themselves as lowner, distinct from the company, and focus on their own needs. Who only performs the most basic requirements needed for their jobs, and their main motivation is their paycheck.
Hare, J. (Ed.). (2015, September 10). Positive psychology in the workplace. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
Every employee can be motivated, since every employee has his reasons for acquiring a specific job. It ranges from self satisfaction and high morale, to obtaining a better quality of life. The secret here is to create a medium in which people are eager to work effectively and efficiently to accomplish the company’s goals. However, the concept of achieving employee motivation as an enhancing factor for company performance is relatively new. All these aspects led to the emergence of the concepts of human resource development (HRD) and human resource management (HRM).
Workplace culture is often hard to describe, because it means something different in every organisation and many times employees feel it’s ‘just the way things are’. But so often it can define a company and when it’s not working well, everyone knows about it.
What is corporate culture? Sometimes it is can be referred to as organizational culture, or simply the culture of ones company. There are also many definitions for what the culture of the company is. Defined by Lydiah Wairimu Wambugu in the European Journal for Business and Management, “Organizational culture comprises the unwritten customs, behaviors and beliefs that determine the "rules of the game" for decision-making, structure and power. It 's based on the shared history and traditions of the
Corporate culture plays key role for the growth and success of any organization. Corporate culture comprises of the people and their behavioural activities, which include vision values, character, plans, follow up, beliefs, habits, technology, communication, assumption, management and many other parameters. Humans are only subjects have the skills to think in any organization, remaining all other body like instruments, techniques or technology will always fallow the guidelines given by the people who are working in the company. So, the performance of people and creative management will always reflect the growth of any organization. The follow studies confer about the importance of corporate
Corporate culture is the collective behaviour of people using common corporate vision, goals, shared values, beliefs, habits, working language, systems, and symbols. It is interwoven with processes, technologies, learning and significant events. In addition, different individuals bring to the workplace their own uniqueness, knowledge, and ethnic culture. So corporate culture encompasses moral, social, and behavioral norms of your organization based on the values, beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members.
This paper is divided into two parts. The first part explores the concept of corporate culture, looks at the levels in which corporate culture exists and explains the three stages model. The second part analyze and discuss the idea of autonomy and how is it applied as a motivator using the work of Dr. Edgar Schein as a point of reference.