Leadership Scenario

Motivation is instilled in most people by means of how they want to accomplish their goals. Having motivation alone will not get the job done. Other factors need to be considered if a leader wants to establish a strong team that will be able to meet expectations. An individual's knowledge, skills, and abilities are major factors that determine an individual's effectiveness. The environmental factors surrounding the individual can either hurt or boost productivity. The leader has to provide the necessary resources, information, and support to balance the efforts from both sides.

Motivation Theories

Equity Theory: The Equity Theory maintains that people are motivated by a sense of fairness, and this fairness is a result of comparisons that each person makes based on their own interpretation of social standings. Everyone compares their own inputs and outputs with other people inputs and outputs. An input is a contribution that a person makes to their work environment that contributes to the business as a whole or to a certain task, and an output is the reward which can be monetary or otherwise that a person receives for the input that they put in. People believe that if they are doing the same work (input) as a referent than the compensation (output) should be exactly the same and this is often not the case. A referent is the person or group of people that an individual will look at when comparing their own inputs and outputs to others (Adams, 1965). Some of these reactions can be positive, such as negotiating with a boss for more output, and some can be negative, such as deliberately decreasing one’s own input. The case study shows good examples of the equity theory and the impact it has on the employees.

In context of the leadership and motivational case study the equity theory applies well to Alex. Alex is aware that Denise, who has only been working at the supermarket for 3 months, makes $2 an hour more than he does, to complete the same tasks....