In this week's resources, you have been exploring what motivates people. Employees who believe that their work is of value to the company find their jobs much more rewarding than other employees do. But how do you know if a challenging assignment is above an employee's abilities? Think of what might happen to an employee's morale, not to mention the company's reputation, if he or she was given a task too difficult to perform. As you review the resources this week, continue your research and prepare a Discussion posting, contemplate the following.

Review the information in the case study, "Is the Rookie Ready?" What course of action should Tim O'Connell take? Why?

• In this high stress situation, is it possible to develop commitment and high performance? What would Kristen need to do differently?
• How can a manager work toward creating job satisfaction for others?
• If you were Kristen's manager, how would you motivate her to get the assignment completed under such difficult circumstances?
• If you were Kristen, how would you motivate the team to help you?

As a manager, how can you balance your approach to motivating others without either overwhelming them, or boring them by failing to use their capabilities to the fullest? How can you ensure that team members will feel motivated to put forth their best effort, knowing that their performance may be impacted by others on their team?

Be sure to support your work with specific citations from any additional sources.