Mba 612: The Power of Effective Leadership in Workforce Motivation

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American University of Sharjah
Master of Business Administration
MBA 612 | Leadership and Change Management
Summer 2015

Research Paper - Midterm

The Power of Effective Leadership in Workforce Motivation

By

Nadia B. Azzam
ID 27379

Submitted to
Dr. Linzi J. Kemp

Submission Date

July 14, 2015

Table of Contents

1. Introduction        
2. Literature Review        
3. Primary Research        
4. Analysis and Discussion        
5. Conclusion and Recommendations        
6. References        

1. Introduction

One of the key success factors in today's organizations is to have a highly motivated workforce. Work performance is highly related to motivation levels because motivation plus ability equals performance (Cameron & Whetten, 2005). Therefore, part of effective leadership construct is the ability to motivate one's subordinates, peers as well as other employees in the work environment. According to House et.al (2004), motivation is a key component of leadership. They state that leadership is, amongst others, the ability to motivate others to contribute towards the success of their groups and organizations. On the other hand, unmotivated employees are likely to spend very little effort on their work, leave the company when given the opportunity and result in low quality performance (Amabile, 1993). Therefore, the best leaders are those who are able to enhance intrinsic motivation and inspiration within their teams.

The research question this paper attempts to answer is:  What leadership techniques can increase intrinsic motivation among employees and result in a highly motivated workforce? The research methods employed in this paper include primary research consisting of an interview with a team leader in an established construction company, in addition to a review of secondary resources of pertinent literature work on the subject of motivation and leadership.

1. Literature Review

In his book, Amplifiers, Church (2013) explains the art of motivational leadership practiced by great leaders to influence others and guide them to the path of success. The author emphasizes the need for business leader’s to bridge the link between their strategies and actual execution by motivating and inspiring people around them to excellence. “Amplifiers”, as identified by Church, comprises those great leaders who master the ability to maximize potential outcome from humans and allow new leaders to emerge. These leaders acquire the set of skills and strategies required for motivational leadership, including effective communication skills and high impact word choice when guiding others.

Curtis & O'Connell (2011) go further to distinguish between leadership styles, namely transformational versus transactional, and identify their effectiveness in enforcing intrinsic motivation. They present theories which support that transformational leadership style is the most successful in creating intrinsic motivation among their teams when compared to transactional leadership and other non-transformational leadership styles. According to theories presented, transformational leadership is proven to have a positive relation to inspirational motivation, where leaders constantly inspire team members with enthusiasm to work and team spirit, in contrast to transactional leadership, where employees work to satisfy an agreed level of work performance to receive a reward, and the leader intervenes only when something wrong happens.

Furthermore, Fortsyth (1999, p.46) proposes that habits, goals, expectations and instincts drive people to take action and guide their motivation. According to him, positively reinforced behaviors such as those followed by rewards are more likely to occur, while negatively reinforced behaviors that are followed by negative consequences will extinct. Therefore, he suggests that positive reinforcement and small rewarding strategies, along with setting realistic goals are key to enhancing motivation among employees.

On the other hand, Blanchard and Miller (2001 p. 95) suggest that the term servant leadership is an important tool to foster motivation in a work place. They identify servant leaders as those who view that part of their duty is to support, develop and motivate their teams. In other words, they view leadership as working for their followers. This viewpoint is healthy not only to develop personnel but also to increase trust and interpersonal relationships required to enhance motivation and performance.