PSY 365 Module 3 Motivation Theory and Workplace Challenges example

Keeping Drivers Motivated Through the Move to Weekend Delivery

[Student Name]

Southern New Hampshire University

PSY 365: Leadership and Motivation in the Workplace

Module Three Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.

Keeping Drivers Motivated Through the Move to Weekend Delivery

The Challenge

In three months, the regional carrier will add Saturday delivery at the composite central Pennsylvania depot managed by Marcus Hale. The depot's 52 drivers currently work Monday to Friday. The region's plan is to assign Saturdays by seniority, with the least senior drivers covering most of them, and to announce the schedule two weeks before launch. Drivers have heard rumors for weeks. Several newer drivers have said they will look for other jobs if they are handed every Saturday, and senior drivers worry they will be forced to cover when newer drivers quit. The change itself is not negotiable; the region has signed contracts with retailers. What can be shaped is how it is introduced, and that is where motivation research is most useful.

What Drivers Need: Self-Determination Theory

Ryan and Deci (2000) traced the quality of motivation to three basic needs: feeling that one's actions are self-chosen (autonomy), feeling capable of doing them well (competence) and feeling connected to the people around one (relatedness). When these needs are supported, people are more likely to internalize requirements they did not choose, doing them willingly rather than under pressure. When they are thwarted, motivation shifts toward compliance or withdrawal.

The region's plan threatens all three. Assigning Saturdays by seniority with two weeks' notice removes any choice, which undermines autonomy. Weekend routes will include new residential stops the drivers do not know, with no plan for training, which threatens competence. And splitting the depot into a Saturday crew of newer drivers and a weekday crew of senior drivers would divide a workforce whose strongest satisfaction, in recent conversations, is with coworkers. The change drivers cannot avoid does not have to take away the sense of choice, skill and belonging that keeps them at the depot.

A Fair Process: Organizational Justice

Organizational justice research separates the fairness of outcomes, of procedures and of treatment. Colquitt et al. (2001) reviewed 25 years of studies and found that procedural justice was strongly related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and trust, while interactional justice was especially related to how people evaluate their supervisors. The implication is important for Marcus: even if Saturday work is unwelcome, drivers can accept it if the process for assigning it is fair and they are treated with respect along the way. Table 1 compares the region's plan with an alternative.

Table 1

Justice Dimensions of Two Weekend Rollout Plans

Note. Composite comparison prepared for the depot manager.

Employee Participation

The committee is the key element. Five drivers, elected by the drivers and including both senior and newer drivers, would work with Marcus to design the rotation within limits the region sets: every Saturday route must be covered, and costs must stay within budget. The committee could decide how swaps work, whether drivers can volunteer for extra Saturdays in exchange for a weekday off and how holidays are handled. Participation of this kind supports autonomy even though the change itself was imposed, and it gives drivers a voice in the process, one of the conditions that makes procedures feel fair. It also brings practical knowledge Marcus lacks, since drivers know which personal commitments make certain Saturdays impossible.

SMART Goals for the First Quarter

Goals give the change a direction drivers can see. Locke and Latham (2002) reviewed decades of studies in which a clear, challenging target beat an open instruction to "do your best" on performance, as long as people are committed to the goals and receive feedback. Table 2 sets goals written to the SMART standard, each one precise, countable, realistic, tied to the change and dated.

Table 2

SMART Goals for the Weekend Delivery Launch

Note. Composite goals. Progress posted weekly at the depot.

A Caution About the Goals

Goals can also backfire. In laboratory experiments, Schweitzer et al. (2004) found that people given specific goals were more likely than those told to do their best to overstate their performance, especially when they had fallen just short of the target, and narrow targets can also draw attention away from whatever is not measured. A Saturday departure target could tempt drivers to skip pre-trip vehicle inspections, and a resignation target could tempt a manager to pressure drivers not to leave rather than making the depot a place they want to stay. For that reason, the departure goal will be reviewed alongside inspection completion rates, and the resignation goal will be read together with the fairness survey. The goals are signals for Marcus and the committee to discuss, not quotas to be met at any cost.

Why This Approach Should Work

The approach supports each basic need: the committee and swap rules give drivers choice within a fixed requirement, the ride-alongs build competence before it is tested, and the shared rotation keeps the depot one team. It applies all four forms of justice at little cost. And the goals turn an unwelcome change into a shared project with visible progress. The one real cost is time: the committee needs about four weeks, which is why it must start now rather than after the region finalizes the schedule.

First Steps

This week, Marcus should ask the region for authority to design the rotation locally within its coverage and budget limits, explain the change and the reasons for it to drivers in person, and call for committee nominations. The draft rotation should be shared six weeks before launch, and the first weekly progress posting should appear the week Saturday service begins.

References

Colquitt, J. A., Conlon, D. E., Wesson, M. J., Porter, C. O. L. H., & Ng, K. Y. (2001). Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 425-445. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.425

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68

Schweitzer, M. E., Ordóñez, L., & Douma, B. (2004). Goal setting as a motivator of unethical behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 47(3), 422-432. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159591