Emotion vs Motivation free essay sample

There are many ways in which emotions can change our state of motivation at any given moment. There are many theories and models that help explain why people are motivated to do the things they do, whether it is at work, school, or just at home with children. However, in some way, they are applicable, and make it easier to understand why humans do what they do. There are two different models being examined today, and the achievement motive as well as the arousal theory will be applied. The first theory being examined will be the arousal theory. The arousal theory suggests that each of us has an optimum level of arousal that varies over the course of the day and from one situation to another. According to this view, behavior is motivated by the desire to maintain the optimum level of arousal for a given moment.† (Morris and Maisto, pg. We will write a custom essay sample on Emotion vs Motivation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 260) The first situation presented is as followed; â€Å"Stacie finds that, although she used to like her current position within the company, she now finds it less rewarding. She has been in the same position for a few years, and in the past, enjoyed working on the team she was assigned. Recently, she had the opportunity to work on a special project, but this work was temporary. She found the brainstorming, planning, and development related to the project invigorating and engaging. Once the project was completed, she returned to her prior position. She no longer finds her current position as satisfying as she used to prior to working on the special project. She is considering changing positions within the company, if possible, or seeking out a job in another organization.† Stacie found the work that she was previously performing sufficient enough to meet her arousal needs until she was faced with more challenging work. Because she found the new project invigorating and engaging, her arousal was increased, but not so much to make it where she could not perform the tasks at hand. She was more motivated by the new work because her arousal was heightened and the prior position created a lessened amount of arousal,  therefore making the previous work harder to perform. This confirms the Dodson law, because she was no longer able to optimally perform the simple tasks of her previous work because her level of arousal was not heightened enough. (Morris and Mais to, pg. 260) She was not feeling challenged enough to engage in the work that she was previously being asked to perform. The next model to be examined will be the achievement motive. The achievement motive is the need to excel and overcome obstacles. (Morris and Maisto, pg. 277) The second situation being presented is as follows; Shannon comes to work every day on time. She does her job as assigned, works very hard, takes on challenging tasks to improve performance, and ensures that this is noticed by others. She is very clear about the expectations for her position as well as the criteria for evaluation. During annual evaluations, she hopes her evaluation scores are high enough for her to be eligible for a merit raise. One of her primary goals for this year is to be nominated for the employee of the year award at the companys annual dinner, which comes with both a preferred parking space and a cash bonus. There are three aspects of achievement-oriented behavior and they include work orientation (the desire to do a good job), mastery (improving past performance) and competitiveness (comparing one’s skills with peers’.) Shannon made sure to take on challenging tasks and improve her performance, thus fulfilling the aspect of mastery. She does her assigned work and works very hard, as well as staying clear on expectations, fulfilling the aspect of work orientation. And lastly, she makes sure that her work is noticed and hopes to win employee of the year, fulfilling the aspect of competitiveness, because she hopes to excel beyond the work of her peers. Although her achievement motive is extremely strong, she may also be affected by the extrinsic motivators of a preferred parking space and cash bonus as well. This may also play a strong role in her motivation. Emotions can also easily influence the amount of motivation a person has towards a given task. We will focus on Ekman’s 6 primary, universal emotions. Because emotions are not based on specific needs and desires, but more how a person is feeling, it is more difficult to predict emotion based on behavior. However, in Stacie’s case, and her lack of arousal, anger may  play a role in how well she performs the easier work she was presented before the new project. If she becomes angry or sad because she is tired of the work she is doing, and cannot get a more challenging job, it would make it more difficult to perform the task at hand because she is focusing on her emotions and not on her work, although it is easy work. This can be comparable to Shannon as well. If she does not get awarded employee of the year, she may become angry or disgusted with herself, therefore making it so she does not work as hard the next time around. Anger may play a role in making the tasks at hand harder to perform. However, if Stacie does get a new position that meets her arousal needs, she will most likely feel the emotion of happiness, which in turn will allow her to work in her environment better because she feels better about what she is doing. Shannon would feel the same way. If she was to win employee of the year, she would be elated, and take on her position with happiness and pride. Thus, her achievement motive would be boosted even more, and the emotion of happiness would help motivate her to do the work presented. Organizations could take into account the achievement motive, and make sure that there is some level of recognition with employees so that they feel the work they are performing is not going unnoticed. It will allow them to do better than peers, ultimately improving work place behaviors across the board. If the arousal theory was taken into account, organizations could work on recognizing employee’s needs so that they do not become bored with the work they are performing. If they are no longer interested in the work being done, chances are that the quality of work being done will be better than if employees are not intrigued with what they are working on.