RUNNING HEAD: ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND YOUR CAREER PATH

Organization Structure and Your Career Path

Traci Hegarty
ORG502 Effective Organizations: Theory and Practice
Colorado State University Global Campus
Dr. Johnny Morris
July 19, 2015

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND YOUR CAREER PATH

Organization Structure and Your Career Path

Motivation plays a key role in whether a company succeeds or fails in todays global
marketplace. Leaders are responsible for the motivation of employees, which leads to lower
levels of attrition. Maintaining high levels of motivation provides leaders with the ability to
assign challenging tasks to employees without a significant decrease in employee satisfaction.
Leaders must determine what forms of motivation will be most likely to succeed in their given
organizations structure, and must evaluate the success rate of past endeavors against the
companys current needs.
Leaders must determine whether the structure of their organization is formal or informal,
which will help when dealing with employee motivation. Formal structure is where the
positions and the relations are defined and specified explicitly, (Prodanciuc, 2012, p. 209) and
informal is where social positions correspond to the characteristics and affinities of the
organization members, (Prodanciuc, 2012, p. 209). Typically, leader positions would be more
formally defined, as the positions which leaders fill must be specifically defined to ensure
adequate delegation of duties between upper and lower levels of leadership.
Using the formal definition of the organizations structure, leaders must then determine
the definition of motivation in order to provide adequate direction to employees. Motivation is a
collection of values, beliefs, and attitudes, which leads an individual to act in a specific manner.
Motivation can be broken down into two broad categories; intrinsic and extrinsic. Individual
motivation typically falls primarily within one of the two categories, with some overlap
expected.

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND YOUR CAREER PATH

The individual leader must determine which form would be most effective for their team.
Therefore, individual motivation must be custom tailored to achieve high levels of success. In
addition to motivation, the leader must also determine if the employee has the required skills and
abilities to adequately perform the duties requested of them. Ensuring that employees gain
education to further assist them in performing their work duties is in itself a form of motivation.
It proves to the employee they are valued and shows them that their efforts are recognized and
are being rewarded.
After ensuring employee knowledge, the leader is then able to use their prior assessment
of the employees motivation method to determine if an intrinsic or extrinsic style is needed.
Intrinsic motivation is something that motivates people to want to do something without
expecting a reward, (Crosbie, 2015, p. 7). Employees who are intrinsically motivated tend to be
more interested in the job itself. While money and bonuses can help them be motivated, that is
not typically why they are so focused on their work. They do the job simply for the joy it brings
to them. The sense of accomplishment, or pride in good work is their primary motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is typically more understandable from the employers viewpoint, as
employees that are motivated in such a way tend to have motivation points that employers can
use. Extrinsic motivation is the desire to do something because of external rewards such as
awards, money, and praise. People who are extrinsically motivated tend to be de-motivated
without the rewards, and they typically are not as satisfied with their jobs if there is a lack of
recognition and rewards.
A primary challenge that a manager encounters concerning motivation is how employees
effectively promote an encouraging workplace. Employee input in relation to their job duties

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND YOUR CAREER PATH

and the organization as a whole helps to increase productivity. Leaders with workers that are
properly motivated have a workforce that perform as a higher level of engagement and
encourage workers to provide input on performance. Gaining employee input provides the
company with an insight into the effectiveness of the organizations structure from the
perspective of the employee, which allows leaders the understanding of the effectiveness of the
motivational goals.
Another method of motivation is leading by example. Leaders who exemplify the ideals
they are trying to instill in the organization as a whole show employees that the leaders will
follow the same rules and regulations they are expected to follow. Leaders who lead by example
create a standard of excellence that sets high expectations for employees. Modeling the expected
behavior allows the employees an example of how they are expected to behave as well.
Leading by example also provides value to the employees and helps nurture the
interoffice relationships that are vital to a healthy, well-organized company. Leaders that have
excellent listening and communicative skills are leaders that employees can trust to listen to
concerns and to treat them and their issues fairly. Leaders transparency shows in the workplace,
as leaders who treat their employees fairly and well tend to have the same in return.
Collaboration is an important part of leadership, and is essential to build high-performing
groups. Employees provide a higher quality work in an efficient manner when collaborating
with leaders and other employees. Teamwork can be an attractive part of the organizations
culture, which will lead to lower attrition and increased trust between leaders and employees.
Leaders can instill motivation into employees by resolving conflict proactively. Conflict
resolution is delicate to begin with but by resolving issues quickly, there is less hostility in the

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND YOUR CAREER PATH

workplace and overall helps keep disagreements down and motivation up. Time must be allotted
to work with teams to help make the workplace as stress free as possible, to help motivate and
encourage employees.
Employees that are motivated tend to make the workplace more harmonious and
engaging. Laura McLachlan, founder of Executive Republic states best how motivation affects
employees. When employees feel a deep sense of work satisfaction, they are more likely to
strive for greater success and emanate more positive energy in their professional space and home
life, (Motivating Staff, 2015, p. 4). Satisfied employees are employees that will pour their all
into their work, and in turn help make a successful and enjoyable workplace.

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND YOUR CAREER PATH

References:
Crosbie, R. (2015). Leaders and Delegation. (English). Canadian Manager, 39(4), 5-8.
Motivating Staff in the Workplace. (2015). Teller Vision, (1456), 4.
PRODANCIUC, ROBERT. 2012. "SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS." Annals Of The University Of
Petrosani Economics 12, no. 3: 205-214. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost