Group Motivation Inventory

In week four of this class the individual assignment is for the completion of a group motivation inventory. The purpose for this paper is to write about the following topics. What have I learned about myself going through this exercise, and how that knowledge will impact my interaction in a group. In this paper the author also looks at what will be done differently in future groups. The author will also identify things to do to be more motivated and the incentives that would help the author to be motivated when working in a group. Lastly, this paper will provide considerations that the author would have to make for group members differing motivators.

While working on the Group Motivation Inventory, the author found that any weakness within a group does not have to be caused by a group member, but could occur by factors or effects of events external or internal to the group. The assessment used included questions that explored the author's work ethic, quality of contribution, quantity of contribution, attitude toward members of the team. The job task at hand the quality and dedication shared with other team members. Finally, the assessment looked at the level of understanding and acceptance of the team's diverseness. It is the author's opinion that completion of this assessment will improve the group's productivity and cohesion, setting the team up for success.

Identifying and Discovery

Upon completion of the Group Motivation Inventory, areas of weakness and strengths became evident allowing the author and team members used in this profile to review the reasons the author received a moderate motivation score of 98. According to scoring key for this inventory a score between 76 and 99 represent a moderate level of motivation (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010). A moderate motivation level is one that is environmentally induced with personal negative motivators. Some of the environmental factors with a role in the author's lack of motivation toward the group comes from the limited interaction and influence from team members. Some of this could be perceived as negative attitude, poor organization, and a lack of communication with the team. While these factors may appear as minor to some, these are factors that have a high impact on me as these factors have some control on my actions and responses within the team. Over time the author's reaction and response to these factors will become either a lack of concern about assignments and team members or the author's limited dedication to the team goals.

Growth through Knowledge

With the author's understanding of the factors that control the teams interaction and dedication to achieve the team goals is a valuable tool for the team to progress. Using this assessment, the author has been able to identify things that give me motivation or cause a lack of motivation. Thus the author can use the results of the inventory to better prepare himself and prepare myself for roadblocks that occur. With better knowledge as to what my motivators are allows me to consider both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators that I can use to improve my motivation level. With my improved understanding and acknowledgement that both extrinsic and intrinsic factors can play a role in my personal and the teams group success can help balance the teams potential and improve team motivation to achieve set goals.

Development of Work Ethic

With improved awareness of factors that can alter or diminish the author's motivation provides me the information that can be used to improve my dedication, interaction, and motivation within the team. As an example the author will use procrastination. In order to alleviate the effects of procrastination it is important to set deadlines to ensure that all team members submit their assignments on time. In the case of some team members missing the deadline may create an inconvenience, however in regard to my daily schedule does not allow much flexibility thus a greater problem. Another factor to look at as an example is miscommunication. When team members fail to understand what his or her role is, the team will lose motivation because of doubt. When a team has established regular communication this prevents problems that occur to a low level and provide the team response time for these problems. All team members are aware that life is unpredictable and things happen at a least favorable moment, a plan of action would be for the team to require team members to ensure the organizing and understanding of assignments and deadlines are agreed upon, which allows team members to finish assigned parts on time. Performing these steps allows the team to have adequate time for any issues that come up and give the team time to communicate with other team members, as needed. A plan of action that has been well thought out and prepared