Motivation in the 21st (?) Century

Management scholars have been studying motivation in the workplace for decades. Many of you will recognize the familiar pyramid pictured here as "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs," which Maslow formally presented in 1943. To motivate workers, managers have established all manners of external incentives, such as bonuses, stock options, commissions, and other rewards, in the name of improving productivity. What scientists have consistently found, however, is that these external incentives actually hurt performance. In a stimulating presentation from TED Talks, Daniel Pink cites numerous studies that support this and argues that our motivational approach should be based on autonomy, mastery, and purpose rather than on carrots and sticks. The audience - and surely Maslow - agree. The difficult question for managers is how best to implement "what science knows" into "what managers do."

What entrepreneur do you admire?

In our ice-breaker introductory session of Entrepreneurial Strategies, students identified entrepreneurs whom they admire. The list included Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, WWE founder Vince McMann (!), Bill Gates, Henry Ford, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Interestingly, several students admired Chris Gardner (the protagonist of The Pursuit of Happyness) as a model entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are quite distinct from managers in the personal practices and mindset they assume: entrepreneurs set the work climate, engage in opportunity-seeking behaviors, and constantly strive for new insights to move their ventures forward (McGrath & MacMillan, 2000). That "venture" can be your team's project, your start-up company, or even your career (Mr. Gardner is the gentleman on the left).

Opening day (or Getting to know you, Parte due)

CIMBA students met in classrooms for the first time on Martedi after arriving in Paderno del Grappa by way of long flights from the states. The University of Kansas, U Conn, University of Oregon, and University of Iowa are particularly well represented in this cohort of motivated undergrads. Other schools with student participants include West Virginia, Iowa State, and Texas Tech Universities and the Universities of Arkansas, Nebraska, Delaware, and Tennessee. During introductions in the management course, I asked students to name a manager they admired and why they admired him/her. The overwhelming theme that arose was that students named managers for whom they had once worked, citing personal care and attention, thoughtfulness, outgoing personalities, and a focus on getting things done while having fun. The idea of what a good manager does is embodied in the type of person and the quality of the relationship with that person. There was plenty of anecdotal evidence of the value of "soft skills" in the management field.

Getting to know you!

I've had the pleasure of meeting most of the new faculty members for the fall 2009 semester and am getting oriented to the Paderno del Grappa campus on the beautiful grounds of the Istituto Fillipin (pictured above). This semester I'm teaching introduction to management and entrepreneurial strategies. Both courses will adopt a strong orientation toward problem-solving (especially Intro to Management, with its incorporation of the Kepner-Tregoe methods of decision-making and problem-solving), and both will be heavily grounded in international contexts.