Professional Development Program Proposal

Professional Development Program Proposal

BUS 520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Introduction

Great leaders regularly asses their organizations by addressing issues and proposing solutions. One of those solutions is developing a proposal for a professional development training program that centers on motivational strategies and how an emotional intelligence management approach would benefit department managers.

This paper will detail and propose a new incentive program, based on an Emotional Intelligence, (EI) Management Approach, and how it will foster teamwork, strengthen interpersonal relationships, enhance communication, and increase overall performance. It will also help the CEO gain approval for this initiative. My program’s proposal will include supporting research concerning how motivational strategies enhance job satisfaction and team output. The areas covered will be EI and motivation, EI and social skills and decision making, effective teams, reward systems, and a one-page executive summary. All strong managers and leaders should use a myriad of human skills that possess a strong base of EI. As defined by Daniel Goleman, “EI is the ability to understand and manage emotions well, both personally and in relationships with others.” (Goleman, 1) The intended result would be to adopt this plan and utilize it for future growth in the people and our organization to improve our environment for prospering and continued gains.

EI and Motivation

The core building blocks, as defined in our text, are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. (Uhl-Bien, 2) Under motivation, which is the ability to work hard and persevere by using direction, level, and persistence effort given at work to accomplish a task. There are several process theories of motivation that look at peoples thought processes and motivations for their behavior. You can motivate people in the workforce through positive or negative reinforcement. “A basic principle that underlies most modern theories of motivation is that motivated behavior is performed to obtain pleasurable outcomes.” (Sachua, 3). For employees, that pleasure may be paid leave and incentivized time off, variable alternate work locations to include working from home, bonuses and awards. The opposing negative reinforcement would be to overlook or even take award incentives for substandard production. Human Nature in the workforce tends to be more productive in a positive environment versus a negative one.

By using the positive motivation EI building blocks, we would impact management’s ability to enhance employee performance and job satisfaction. Using research on motivational theory, I would utilize the examples of psychologist David I. McClelland, who experimented with the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and his Acquired Needs Theory. McClelland identified themes from working with the TAT stories that he believed correspond to needs acquired over time as a result of our life experiences. Those needs fall into three categories: “Need for achievement- (nAch) is the desire to do better, solve problems, or master complex tasks; Need for affiliation- (nAff) which is the desire for friendly and warm relations with others.; and Need for power (nPower) which is the desire to control others and influence their behavior.” (Uhl-Bien, 4).

Examples of these categories would be the hard worker who is self-motivated and desires to complete and work complex tasks which are (nAch). The supportive and friendly worker who wants to be more sharing and social while pleasing others are (nAff). The more controlling, take-charge person who is more type-a and is usually leading the group regardless of who is left in charge are (nPower). By learning and utilizing this and other motivational theories, you will attain improved attitude, teamwork, and production.

EI and Social Skills and Decision Making

J. Stacy Adams, whose writings include the equity theory, argues that any perceived inequity becomes a motivator. So, people are motivated to act in a way that restores or maintains a sense of balance or perceived equity in their minds. This core concept of emotional intelligence would enhance the social skills and the decision-making efficacy of the management team by understanding, recognizing, and appropriately responding to equity theory situations in the workforce.

Equity theory is most commonly seen in the workplace when people perceive inequity by feeling under-rewarded or over-rewarded in comparison with others. Felt negative inequity is when someone believes they have received relatively less than others in proportion to the same effort given. These people feel under-rewarded, unappreciated, and unvalued. Felt positive inequity is when someone believes they have received relatively more than others in proportion to the same effort given. These people feel rewarded, appreciated, and valued. When either felt negative or positive inequity exists, the theory suggests that people will be motivated to act in ways that remove cognitive discomfort and restore a sense of perceived equity in the situation. In both cases, the motivational value of rewards is determined by social comparison.”. (Uhl-Bien, 5). The solution to handling this theory in our workplace is to be fair, impartial, and transparent when rewarding. Also, allow employees to express and work out how they feel and believe so we as management can resolve false, feelings, sentiments, and beliefs. This change in our focus will maintain an environment of fairness and ethical treatment that supports EI.

Effective Teams

The core attributes of an effective team are achieving a high level of task performance, achieving a high level of member satisfaction, and achieving a high level of team viability. Teams, just like individuals come in all shapes and sizes. To have an effective team, you must hold your team accountable as well as you would and individual. The management problem is that with every additional person in a team, you broaden the differences in all areas to include personality, learning type, and motivation. When addressing task performance, an effective team will reach performance goals by looking at quantity, quality, and timeliness of work. In most workplaces, this is measured and forecasted against archived production with the intent to improve. Manufacturers try to meet or exceed daily production goals. A new policy task force would meet the goal by submitting a new policy to the company CEO or president. Our effectiveness in teams will lie in our continuous evaluation and improvement of organizational behavior with a focus on individual and team EI to motivate all members to produce high-volume quality work.

Reward Systems

The most effective reward system for this organization would involve many facets to motivate employees to exhibit the individual forces within themselves that account for the level and persistence of their efforts expended for accomplishing our work. The strategies I would incorporate to motivate our employees and influence behavior are in the concept of the employee value proposition (EVP). EVP is “an exchange of value, what the organization offers the employee in return for his or her work contributions.” (Fox, 6) The employee would give work-effort, loyalty, commitment, knowledge, skills, and abilities. Our organization would offer pay, benefits, meaningful work, flexible schedules, personal development, bonuses, promotions, alternate work schedules, paid parking, in-house childcare, and promotions.

Executive Summary

Great leaders regularly asses their organizations by addressing issues and proposing solutions. One of those solutions is developing a proposal for a professional development training program that centers on motivational strategies and how an emotional intelligence management approach would benefit department managers.

So, people are motivated to act a way that restores or maintains a sense of balance or perceived equity in their minds. This is most commonly seen in the workplace when people perceive inequity by feeling under-rewarded or over-rewarded in comparison with others. We would address this through fair transparency and open dialog.

The core attributes of an effective team are achieving a high level of task performance, achieving a high level of member satisfaction, and achieving a high level of team viability. Our effectiveness in teams will lie in our continuous evaluation and improvement of organizational behavior with a focus on individual and team EI to motivate all members to produce high-volume quality work.

The most effective reward system for this organization would involve many facets to motivate employees to exhibit the individual forces within themselves that account for the level and persistence of their efforts expended for accomplishing our work. The employee would give work-effort, loyalty, commitment, knowledge, skills, and abilities. Our organization would offer pay, benefits, meaningful work, flexible schedules, personal development, bonuses, promotions, alternate work schedules, paid parking, in-house childcare, and promotions.

Conclusion

As previously stated, all strong managers and leaders should use a myriad of human skills, which is the ability to deal with others. All human skills should possess a strong base of EI that allows them to not only understand but equally manage emotions well personally and with other people. By adopting this plan and utilizing it for future growth in the people and our organization, it will continue growing in the human dimension and the marketplace. This paper detailed and proposed a new incentive program, based on EI management approaches, and how it fosters teamwork, strengthens interpersonal relationships, enhances communications, and increases overall performance. It also helps gain approval for this initiative for the CEO. My program’s proposal included supporting research concerning how motivational strategies enhance job satisfaction and team output. The areas covered were EI and motivation, EI and social skills and decision making, effective teams, reward systems, and a one-page executive summary. In utilizing EI, This organization will improve the human dimension, productivity, and a healthy working environment the fosters personal and professional growth now, and for the future.

References

Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam, 1998).

Uhl-Bien, M., Schermerhorn, J. R., Osborn, R. N. Organizational Behavior. [Strayer University Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://strayer.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781119033110/

Sachau D. Work motivation. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health. 2018. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=93872332&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed August 11, 2019

4.Uhl-Bien, M., Schermerhorn, J. R., Osborn, R. N. Organizational Behavior. [Strayer University Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://strayer.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781119033110/

5.Uhl-Bien, M., Schermerhorn, J. R., Osborn, R. N. Organizational Behavior. [Strayer University Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://strayer.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781119033110/https://strayer.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781119033110/

6.Adrienne Fox, “Make a ‘Deal,” HR Magazine (January 2012), pp. 37–42.