Motivating People Involved in Mundane Activities free essay sample

Direction to channelize their energies, level The word Mundane is derived from the latin word ‘mudus’ meaning ‘world’. In the thesaurus, mundane refers to an activity which is worldly, earthly, and commonplace. Although mundane is often considered simply a synonym for words like boring, or commonplace, it refers more to worldly or earthly matters vs. spiritual or heavenly. For a memory trick, note how mundane sounds like Monday. Now, consider how mundane Mondays tend to be. On Mondays, you often have to do the most mundane activities of the week, whether its at work, school, or home. In the light of the above information, the question revolves around the level of motivation of the people around us who stick to a mundane life to make our life’s better like the household maid, the rickshaw puller, the auto rickshaw driver, the security man, the sweepers among others. The Project Approach In this study of human behavior and their motivation levels, we would be concentrating on three key people around our vicinity – The security guards at ATM Machines, the rickshaw pullers and the household maids. The characteristics of the three have been summarized in the table given below Security Guards @ ATM| Rickshaw Pullers| Household Maids| Job timings| 24 by 7 job| Need based timings| Morning and evening| Salaried/Daily Wager| Salaried | Daily Wager| Salaried | Formal reporting structure| Yes| No| No| Peers at work| No| Yes| No| Extra Remarks| Work allocation by shifts and locations keep changing| Self owned or rented rickshaws, mostly people | Multiple employers| For this we would be creating a simple survey questionnaire and interacting with a few people from all three sample categories. We would be conducting the survey for the household maids during the early morning hours from 0630 hrs to 0930 hrs as they are available only in the morning or evening hours and for the rickshaw pullers in the afternoon hours as they would be free and at the rickshaw stand in afternoon. The security guards at the ATM machines are available 24 by 7 and their surveys would be conducted in the nights, which are more dead periods for the ATM machine usage and would not hamper their day to day operations. A copy of the Survey Questionnaire is attached towards the end of the project report for reference. Results from the Survey Report Project Composition Age – A fairly uniform mix of people from various age groups has been considered. Project Composition v/s Age graph Family Size and Earning members There is a very high correlation between family size and earning members, which is 0. 85225915. Work Experience / education The Content Theory – Maslow’s hierarchy The motivation results from the individual’s attempt to satisfy needs. We evaluated four content theories for the survey results we got, namely hierarchy of needs theory, ERG theory, acquired needs theory and two factor theory. The results indicated that our results showed a close association to the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory and hints of ERG theory. The survey group was more focused on meeting the daily needs rather than motivate themselves for some social causes. Self actualization was not in their remotest thoughts as they were too connected to the earthly things and social respect was the most desired need. This is what the response from the last question in the questionnaire suggest. There are adequate hints of ERG theory in the results as well. The desire for physiological and material well being, for satisfying interpersonal relationships and for continued personal growth and development clearly satisfy the three primary conditions of a relation between the ERG theory and our results. Infact, we believe it is a very thin line separating the above mentioned theories and our results would have given us a better picture if our sample size would have been more than its current size. The Process Theory – Equity Theory In our survey sample, the process theory is applicable to only one section of sample population i. e. the security guards at the ATM machines because the other two categories do not have a formal reporting culture and more like self employed people. In most of the cases, all security guards at ATM’s are within the same salary range and longer the stay with one particular, the better is your salary range. For instance, the average salary range is from Rupees 5000/- to Rupees 7000/- per month. For a new recruit it would be around Rupees 5000/- with no perks and for a one year experienced security guard, it would be around Rupees 5700/- per month with some extra perks. Inequity, both positive as well as negative, in terms of locations of ATM’s and timings was reported. A good rapport with the shift managers plays a crucial role in deciding the work timings and the location of ATM’s. Experienced and qualified security staff were shifted to day shift jobs in larger corporate. The next aspect of the Equity Theory is the Equity Restoration Behavior which ncludes three basic ideas to curtail the negativity associated with comparison between two employees – Change the work inputs which would eventually change the work outputs received and eventually, the employer would try to distort the comparison from the employee’s mind. It is believed that if the comparison points are communicated to the employees clearly there would not be any negative inequity be tween them. A negative thinker should be first neutralized and then made a positive thinker by regular training and growth opportunities. The Reinforcement Theory Law of Effect The administration of a consequence as a result of behavior is called reinforcement. It works on the law of effects, be it positive or negative. Proper management of reinforcement can change the direction, level and persistence of an individual’s behavior. The law of effects states that a behavior that results in a pleasant outcome is likely to be repeated while behavior that results in an unpleasant outcome is not likely to be repeated. Positive reinforcement * As an incentive, apart from the monetary benefits include some health benefits for the family members. Assigning the duty at ATM’s closer to his home. * Fee reimbursement for employees with more than 2 year experience with the same employee as a loyalty bonus. Negative reinforcement * The employee should be warned before taking any serious actions, so that the likelihood of repeating the desired behavior in a similar setting increases. Punishment * The administration of negative consequences or the withdrawal of positive consequences to reduce the likelihood of repeating the behavior in similar settings. * Arbitrary and capricious punishment leads to poor performance and low satisfaction. Extinction * The withdrawal of the reinforcing consequences for a certain behavior Measures to improve the Motivation levels of the sample There is a strong need to motivate these people and bring a change in their otherwise mundane routine. Some of the measures as suggested by us are: * Provide education to their children * Conduct public meetings and camps to educate them about the importance of educating a girl child * Sensitize them about the importance of community service and organize blood donation camps etc. Organize free health check-ups for the employees and their family members. Learning as a group The last two days have given us a very sensitive outlook towards individuals from all strata of society. It has taught us that there are more valuable and important things in life than the 2 mark question which we missed in the last end term examination. Life is much more than the comforts of the air conditioned buses and the birthday parties at pizza hut. It is good to be impor tant in life but it is more important to be good in life.