Motivation Activity



What Do People Want From Their Jobs?

Objective - To identify what motivates people to work.

Give each learner a copy of the form listed below. Divide the learners into small groups of four. Ask each learner to indicate in the column titled "Individual" which of the 10 items listed is felt to be of most importance in contributing to morale. Weight the items from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most important item, 2 being the second most important, 3 being the third most important, and so on until all 10 items have been weighted.

When they have completed the ranking,  have each group total the individual weights within their group. Rank the 10 items under the column titled "Group."

Inform the group that this same scale has been given to thousands of workers across the country. Their ranking is as follows: 

Supervisors ranked it as:
High Wages
Job Security
Promotion in the Company
Good Working Conditions
Interesting Work
Personal Loyalty of Supervisor
Tactful Discipline
Full Appreciation of Work Being Done
Help on Personal Problems
Feeling of Being In On Things
However, when employees were given the same exercise, their answers tend to follow this pattern:
Full Appreciation of Work Being Done
Feeling of Being In On Things
Help on Personal Problems
Job Security
High Wages
Interesting Work
Promotion in the Company
Personal Loyalty of Supervisor
Good Working Conditions
Tactful Discipline

Discussion Questions

  1. In comparing the different ratings, what might account for the different opinion?
  2. What might be the cause of the supervisor's rankings being so different from the employees?
  3. If this survey was given to your department, what would the results be?

 

 

Individual  Factors Group Factors What do people want from their jobs?
________  ________  Promotion in the Company
________  ________  Tactful Discipline
________  ________  Job Security
________  ________  Help with Personal Problems
________  ________  Personal Loyalty of Supervisor
________  ________  High Wages
________  ________  Full Appreciation of Work Done
________  ________  Good Working Conditions
________  ________  Feeling of Being In on Things
________  ________  Interesting Work


Reference

This survey is based on works by Susan Herrington, North Tennessee Private Industry Council in Clarksville, Tenn.


Notes
Created January 18, 1998. Last update March 28, 2000.
Leadership Training and Development Outline
About
donclark@nwlink.com
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadtrn.html