Assignment: The Impact of Intrinsic Motivation

Reflect for a moment on your nursing career. About what are you most passionate? When do you feel you are at your best? What brings you the greatest satisfaction in your work? Positive feelings in the workplace are usually fueled by intrinsic motivators: healthy relationships, meaningful purpose, competence, choice, and progress. As a nurse manager, it is helpful to recognize what motivates you to perform well in your own job. You should also take time to understand the motivations of employees. By speaking to staff about their interests and professional goals, nurse managers can build relationships and thus provide appropriate motivators.

For this Assignment, you examine your personal work experiences to determine which of the five intrinsic motivators are more influential in shaping your positive feelings about the workplace.

To prepare

• Reflect on your work history, from your first job to your current employment.

• Select one time period or situation in which you felt professionally happy, motivated, and fulfilled in your job. What do you remember most about this time period? What are, or were, the various personal and professional factors that helped to shape these feelings?

• Select one time period or situation in which you felt professionally unhappy, disengaged, and unfulfilled in your job. What do you remember most about this time period? What are, or were, the various personal and professional factors that caused these feelings?

• Review the selected pages from Chapter 7, "Coaching and Developing Others" in the course text, From Management to Leadership: Strategies for Transforming Health Care. Consider the potential influence of the five intrinsic motivators during your chosen time period or situation.

o Which intrinsic motivators seem to resonate more with your own perceptions of job fulfillment?

o Which motivators do you believe have greater influence on your professional well-being?

• Review the media, "Fostering a Positive Workplace." How can nurse leaders use their awareness of the five motivators to engage and retain nursing staff?

To complete

Submit a 3- to 5-page paper in which you do the following:

• Appraise a time when you have felt professionally fulfilled. Describe the setting, your job title, and the roles and responsibilities in which you were engaged. Identify your own key intrinsic motivators and explain how these were evident in this situation. Cite specific examples.

• Appraise a time when you have felt professionally unfulfilled. Describe the setting, your job title, and the roles and responsibilities in which you were engaged. Explain the motivator(s) that were absent and how this impacted your professional performance. Cite specific examples.

• Discuss how you, as a nurse manager, might implement organization- or department-wide changes that would create an environment that engages staff through one or more intrinsic motivators.

Required Readings

Lussier, R. N., & Hendon, J. R. (2016). Human resource management: Functions, applications, & skill development (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Chapter 14, "Workplace Safety, Health, and Security" (pp. 526-558)The authors analyze the many factors that contribute to and affect workplace safety. They provide techniques for stress management and how to handle violence in the workplace.

Manion, J. (2011). From management to leadership: Strategies for transforming health care (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Chapter 1, "Leadership: An Elusive Concept" (pp. 1-30)Chapter 1 provides a thoughtful comparison between the functions of management and leadership. It highlights leadership best practices and leaders as change agents.

Chapter 2, "Cultivating the Leadership Relationship" (pp. 31-68)This chapter explains how effective leaders cultivate healthy relationships with staff members. The author discusses key leadership characteristics as well as the four essential elements of a healthy leadership relationship: trust, mutual respect, support, and communication.

Chapter 4, "Communicating with Clarity" (115-179)Chapter 4 describes the many aspects of communication and how each can affect relationships within the workplace. It includes common forms of miscommunication and tips for becoming a more effective communicator and listener.

Chapter 7, "Coaching and Developing Others" (pp. 295-307 only)The selected pages from Chapter 7 examine the misconceptions many leaders have about individual motivations. The author discusses workplace and work-life factors that influence employee motivation.
Achor, S. (2012). Positive intelligence. Harvard Business Review, 90(1/2), 100-102. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

This article explores the theory that happiness precedes success. The author discusses three basic strategies that people can use to improve their mental well-being and performance at work.