Assumptions About Motivation & Leadership

Initial Assumptions About Motivation and Leadership

The initial assumptions held by the writer with respect to the motivation of people in organizational environments were tied to my understanding of the motivation theories of B. F. Skinner, Abraham Maslow, and Frederick Herzberg. The writer's assumptions, to an extent, represented an amalgamation of these theoretical approaches to motivation.

Skinner's motivation theory relied on reinforcement behavior. Skinner held that it was necessary to look outside of an organism for an explanation of its behavior. Following through with this premise, he concluded that it was possible, through the manipulation of variables external to an organism, to both predict and modify its behavior. The principal means of such manipulation was reinforcementboth positive and negative.

Skinner viewed the causal chain of behavior as a threelink process. The first link was an operation performed on an organism from without, while the second link was an inner psychological condition. The third link was a specific behavior. While complete, accurate, and independent information concerning the second link would permit prediction of the third linkbehaviorwithout recourse to the first link, such information simply is not available. Thus, in the management of behavior, which includes the motivation of individuals within organizational environments, it is necessary, according to Skinner, to emphasize the relationship between the first and

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nship between the inner need of an individual and the behavior required to satisfy that need. The writer's assumptions with respect to the motivation of people in organizational environments most closely paralleled the Herzberg theory. The validity of the theories of Skinner and Maslow, however, also were recognized. The initial assumptions of the writer with respect to the leadership characteristics necessary to develop effective motivation within organizational environments were based on the writer's understanding of the dichotomy between the contention that leadership is an art and the contention that leadership is a science. Some theorists conceive of leadership as primarily an art form, while others conceive of it as primarily a scientific process, and still others conceive of leadership as some sort of combination of the two. Peter Drucker said that leadership is of the utmost importance, for which there is no substitute. He also said that leadership cannot be created or promoted, and that it cannot be taught or learned. Thus, Drucker came down on the side of arta science can be learned but an art cannot, and leaders are born, not made. Bradford Boyd said that leadership is, simply, getting people to work to achieve t

Category: Psychology - A