Motivation & Work Ethic

GM-591 Organizational Behavior
Professor: Michael Komos
10/15/2011

A motivated work force equals a productive work force. For my course project I will be discussing the organization I work for, Comcast Cable. Based out of Philadelphia, Pa; Comcast is the largest cable and broadband internet provider in the United States. They are also the fourth largest telephone company providing services to both corporate and residential accounts. I have been with Comcast for 3years, working in the billing and technical support department. My job description includes taking inbound calls discussing billing issues, pricing concerns, and I assist with troubleshooting cable equipment. My course project regarding Comcast has to do with the lack of motivation within the company. I can personally touch on this because I am one of many employees that are not motivated at all within the organization. Does motivation play a role in company dynamic? The main issue within Comcast is the lack of motivation with its employees. I cannot speak for the directors or higher management, but I can for the heart of the company. When I say the heart of the company I am referring to the frontline employees like the technicians, call center representatives, the service center representative, or any employee that deals directly with the customer. There is low moral throughout every department, so much so that when you ask co-workers how things are; the sarcastic response is “Comcastic”. Now that may not mean much to you, but for us that really means “I’m just here, dealing”. Not a great way to feel about work, huh? With employees having low motivation, this causes a huge problem for the company as a whole. An employee’s performance is usually influenced by motivation, ability, and work environment. Intern with no motivation the work ethic is really not there. Overall this comes across through the phone representatives by providing poor customer service. The technicians are exhibiting the same behavior in addition to them doing poor installation of services and repairs. In the end the customer does not want to put up with this type of company, therefore the business ends up losing money and risk going under.

During my research for material for this issue I came across a number of beneficial articles and books related to this particular problem and ways to go about improving it. One of influential part came from my class, Leadership and Organizational Behavior and the course book Organizational Behavior. The class from the beginning was inspirational. This is my first class since starting graduate school, and like many others, my reason for going back to school is to further my education and use it for better career opportunities. How ironic that I’m learning about how the behaviors of the workplace can affect the company as a whole. From the book I applied Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and the Expectancy Theory to the issues within my job. Maslow’s theory offers a pyramid of physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self actualization needs. Maslow’s hierarchy is just as important to the workplace as it is to an individual’s personal life. The expectancy theory argues that motivation is determined by and individuals beliefs regarding effort and performance relationships and work outcome.

Another significant piece came from the book “The Progress Principle”, by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. Teresa and Steven basically took research from over 12,000 diary entries created by hundreds of employees across a number of different firms and identified the factors. These factors were called “the inner work life”, which consist of emotions, motivations, and perception of the employee’s organization. In the book they introduce inner work life and its components, and identified factors that support and sustain a positive inner work life. The authors showed there are three