Background: Be sure to review all 8 scripts (1 paragraph each) related to differing motivational issues that a manager might face. Questions: Choose 2 scripts and answer the following questions: What is the source of the motivational problem? What are three things that a manager can to do improve motivation? Be sure to frame your answer in terms of a motivational theory.

1. You have worked at Corp X for six years as a systems analyst. You are part of a 10-person team. Your team has worked together since you began working at Corp X. During the first six years of your employment, you have surpassed nearly all the goals that you have been given. To reward you for this effort, management has decided to promote you to a new leadership position. This promotion comes at a time when the company is struggling, and you need to energize your team to be more creative and productive. However, importantly, this team is comprised of individuals who, until very recently and for a long length of time, were your peers. They will have issues seeing you as their boss. What will you do to motivate the team? Please see the slides for specific questions to discuss.

2. You are a leader at a local retail store. Generally, your subordinates are unproductive workers: they show up late; they lack commitment; there is high turnover. This is largely because of the nature of the retail industry and is not unique to your specific store. However, you notice that one subordinate, Jackie, is an exceptional performer: she is always on-time, she is very helpful with customers, and she is generally a helpful, good-natured colleague. Because of her positive attributes, you know Jackie deserves to be rewarded, but you dont have the budget to give Jackie a substantial raise. You are worried that Jackies motivation at work will wane because you cannot offer her more compensation. What will you do to motivate Jackie? Please see the slides for specific questions to discuss.

3. You are a recently appointed leader at a bank. Your first day on the job, you decided to interview each of your subordinates individually in order to gauge how satisfied they are with their jobs and the organization. To your surprise, the employees overwhelmingly talked negatively about their former boss about their distrust for the former boss, as well as anger over broken promises. You are worried that your subordinates will not trust you because they have residual negative thoughts and feelings about their prior leader. You are also concerned that this will undermine your subordinates ability to work at their maximum capacity. What will you do to motivate the team? Please see the slides for specific questions to discuss.

4. You are assigned to a group of four people in your financial accounting class. You were unable to choose your team members. The topic of the assigned group project is a topic that you feel knowledgeable and comfortable about. However, you notice that one team member is exceptionally outspoken, despite seeming to know much less about the material than you, and consistently derails the meetings because of his chattiness. Another member is very quiet, and rarely engages in the group discussion and rarely (if ever) contributes substantially to team discussion, although you know this member is highly intelligent. And, finally, the third member seems to be willing to follow whoever emerges as an informal leader. How will you motivate this team of divergent personalities (especially considering that there is no formal leader assigned)?

5. You are a leader of a pharmaceutical sales team. Recently, your company lost a coveted patent and, as a consequence, is experiencing financial difficulty. Because of the financial squeeze, it has elected to cut bonuses by 50% this year. You are worried that your very extrinsically-motivated team will see their enthusiasm for work wane considerably, particularly because many seemed to count on bonuses for yearly vacations or holidays. What will you do to motivate the team? Please see the slides for specific questions to discuss.

6. You have recently been appointed the captain of the local firefighter team. It is a particularly dry season in your neighborhood, and wild fires seem to occur every day, whereas normally you only have to attend about two fires per week. The fire department personnel is consequently overworked, yet are expected to make life-and-death decisions daily within the general duties of dangerous job. What will you do to motivate the team? Please see the slides for specific questions to discuss.

7. You have recently been hired to lead a team of nurses, all of whom are considerably older than you. The nurses sometimes jokingly refer to you as kid rather than sir or maam, which is a far more respectful greeting. You also notice that this team of nurses is very cliquish that is, they seem to always think similarly and act similarly, to the exclusion of outsiders (such as yourself). Sometimes you feel as though the nurses do not fully comply with their assigned duties because they dont respect your position as boss. You are worried that this will reflect poorly on your own performance evaluation as a leader, and need to think of a way to motivate this team of nurses. Please see the slides for specific questions to discuss.

8. You are a newly-hired leader of a team of doctors. You have a lot of experience as a leader, but are not a doctor yourself. These doctors are all very high skilled and very educated. By and large, these doctors resent being managed by a non-doctor, and think that they do not actually need a manager. That is, these doctors prefer to work 100% autonomously and independently, and in particular dont like to have to answer to non-doctors (such as yourself). Despite this, the hospital in which they work is falling behind on patient satisfaction. Your goal as a new leader is to improve the doctors coordination, patient attention, and general motivation to go above-and-beyond for patients. What will you do to motivate the team of doctors? Please see the slides for specific questions to discuss.