In today’s society, most people hear the term flow and think of it as a way of going with whatever life has to offer. The psychological concept of flow was created by professor of psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1990. Csikszentmihalyi, defines flow as an experience felt by an individual who is entirely immersed in the activity that they are engaged in. Flow requires a lack of consciousness and stress because of the intense focus that needs to be prevalent in the task at hand. Many use flow when participating in an activity that presents a challenge that they would like to achieve. If a person is able to clear their mind and focus on a task, they and anyone else, may experience flow for themselves (Beard 353). Experiencing flow is a …show more content…
Using the concepts of flow from Csikszentmihalyi, these authors hypothesized that by experiencing flow at work would create a positive leadership role, which would eventually lead to a great satisfaction in their job (Smith, Koppes, and Vodanovich). When a person is satisfied with their job, they are more likely to be organized and perform to their greatest capability. Some researchers have attempted to use flow to measure the relationship between the usage of flow and the attitudes of the employees while doing their job. The more an employee uses flow in their day-to-day work life, the happier the employee will be in the well-being of life (Fullagar and Kelloway). Using psychological flow in everyday work life has been proven to be extremely beneficial in creating a happy employee that is satisfied with the work that he or she is doing. Researcher Bakker has said that while experiencing flow, a person should feel an intense feeling of accomplishment and fulfilment, just while performing the task that they are expected to do everyday in their jobs (Bakker). Contrary to Csikszentmihalyi’s definition of flow, researcher Bakker (2008) defines “flow as the experience of complete absorption, enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation.” This definition is different from Csikszenmihalyi’s because of Bakker’s lack of focus on one specific task at hand. Csikszenmihalyi’s definition of flow is more precise for completing a task that requires stress as to where Bakker’s is a broad sense of satisfaction when completing any task. Having many different researchers offer their perspective of psychological flow is
There are many types of leadership styles and ways in which leaders can influence the people around them and they all have their strengths and opportunities, however it is the behaviors that we encourage in our followers that will ultimately determine their success or failure. By articulating a vision to our team that helps them understand how their role in Social Media, and how these actions contribute to the overall success of the organization. Yuki (2012) stated, “The essences of leadership in organizations is influencing and facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives. Leaders can improve the performance of a team or organization by influencing the processes that determine performance” (p. 66). We will look at specific real life experience in the creation of a web based Customer/Technical Support Team; analyze the leadership behaviors that were used to implement the goals, the metrics used to measure their progress, and make recommendations as to how those behaviors could have been improved. We will look at some of the effects of the negative behavior and how it affected the team. What could have been done to improve the overall effectiveness of the team and what, if any affect that may have had on the team or organization as a whole.
Flow is a state a person enters which is akin to completely encompassing motivation and attention to what they are doing. Each person can experience flow under different circumstances and tasks and in fact the tasks that I personally experience flow under may be very different from the tasks that would make another person experience the same level of flow. Csikszentmihalyi (2008) wrote “the common characteristics of optimal experience: a sense that one’s skills are adequate to cope with the challenges at hand, in a goal-directed, rule-bound, action system that provides clear clues as to how well one is performing.”
This theory implicates a logical illustration that if the nature of a job sufficed and met the five core characteristics, the employee would feel a sense of fulfillment that would result in excellent work performance (Armstrong, 2017). The job design prefigures the significant relationship of the five core dimensions as to how a worker perceives the three vital psychological states – meaningfulness of work, responsibility and knowledge of outcomes – that would eventually contribute to a sense of general job satisfaction, personal growth, increased motivation and effectiveness of work (DeVaro, Li, Brookshire, 2007). There is a dynamic suggestion in JCM that acclaims the correlation of positive feelings with an excellent performance, and negative feelings with poor performance (Mukul, Rayhan, Hoque, & Islam,
Path-goal theory deals with the leader's style to motivate followers, to accomplish set goals (Northouse, 2010). The path-goal theory is simply the implication that a leader works with an individual to establish a goal. The leader does this by individual motivation to achieve the proposed goal, while working through obstacles that may hinder achieving that goal (Whitener, 2007). The basic assumption of path-goal theory is that the following motivates subordinates: the capability to perform the work, their efforts will result in a certain outcome, and the payoff will be worthwhile (Whitener, 2007). The path-goal theory is a pragmatic approach that the leader uses to motivate the followers to achieve the set goals.
In an epoch of cumulative competition, it is vital for organizations to effectively utilize all existing resources; including human resources. In the workplace, the enthusiasm of employees is imperative to the organization as it is one of the variables that affects the employee output. Fundamental to Herzberg's position is the conception that motivation is a result of personal growth and is based on a distinctive need to grow. What this means is that people find contentment in work that is thought-provoking and
Flow is not a tangible reward for doing well in an activity, it is not a state of being you can achieve from a drug, or a type of mindset that certain people have. Flow is a state of consciousness. But before Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi can define flow, the definition of consciousness must be presented. Consciousness is the awareness of ourselves and our environment. This is so important to know because what breaks the threshold to achieve flow is when one is not conscious of himself or the environment. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, flow is a completely involved, focused state of consciousness, with diminished awareness of self and time,
When it is discovered that a worker can fulfill the requirements of their job, but are experiencing shortcomings in doing so, many times it is believed that worker motivation may be the root of the problem (Laird 95). What, though, is work motivation? According to Laird (2006), “motivation is a fundamental component of performance “ and “is the reason that someone chooses to do some things and chooses not to do others”. In other words, work motivation is what energizes workers to the level of output required to fulfill a task, directs their energy towards the objectives that they need to accomplish, and sustains that level of effort over a period of time (Steers et al., 2004). In essence, worker motivation is what gets the job done. Employee motivation has always been a central problem in the workplace, and, as an individual in a supervisory position, it becomes ones duty to understand and institute systems that ensure the proper motivation of your subordinates. Proper motivation of employees can ensure high productivity and successful workflow, while low worker motivation can result in absenteeism, decreased productivity rates, and turnover. A large body of research has been produced regarding motivation, and much of this research is applicable to the workplace. Due to the nature of man, motivation varies from individual to individual, and, because of this, there is no one system that is the best for ensuring worker motivation in every organizational situation, and, as a product, many theories have been created to outline what drives people to satisfactorily complete their work tasks. Throughout the course of this document, the three main types of these motivational theories will be outlined and examples of each as well...
Motivation and Leadership are intrinsically linked in the fact that one allows an easement in the process of the other. Without the ability to use the mutual relationship of leadership to influence the motivators of followers, leaders stagnate and are limited by their own inability to accomplish all that must be for real change to occur. In less Rostonian terms (that is, based on Rost (1993)), without a motivated group of followers leaders are stranded and not achieving to a level of excellence. This paper will discuss some areas of importance for motivation in leadership as well as an application to leadership theory and a discussion on personal motivators.
Motivation is key in the workplace. It is developed from the collaboration of both conscious and unconscious principles such as the strength of desire or need, motivating force or reward estimation of the objective, and desires of the person and of his or her peers/co-workers. These elements are the reasons one has for carrying on a specific way. An illustration is an understudy that invests additional energy contemplating for a test since he or she needs a superior review in the class. The Inside and outside principles that animate want and vitality in individuals to be constantly intrigued and centered around their work, part or subject, or to try to achieve an objective.
...adership Practices in Relation to Productivity and Morale." In D. Cartwright and A. Zander, Group Dynamics: Research and Theory, 2nd ed. (Elmsford, NY: Row, Paterson, 1960)
In daily life, we need motivation to improve our performance in our job or in studies. Motivation is an internal force, dependent on the needs that drive a person to achieve. In the other words, motivation is a consequence of expectations of the future while satisfaction is a consequence of past events (Carr, 2005). We need to give reward to our self when we did correctly or we has achieve our target. Reward is something that we are given because we have behaved well, worked hard, or provided a service to the community. Theories of motivation can be used to explain the behavior and attitude of employees (Rowley, 1996; Weaver, 1998). The theories include content theories, based on assumptions that people have individual needs, which motivate their action. Meanwhile according to Robbins (2001), motivation is a needs-satisfying process, which means that when a person's needs are satisfied by certain factors, the person will exert superior effort toward attaining organizational goals. Schulze and Steyn (2003) affirmed that in order to understand people’s behavior at work, managers or supervisors must be aware of the concept of needs or motives which will help “move” their employees to act.Theories such as Maslow (1954), McClelland (1961), Herzberg (1966) and Alderfer (1969) are renowned for their works in this field. The intrinsic reward or also be known as motivators factors is the part of Herzberg motivation theory. Motivators are involve factors built into the job or the studies itself such as achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job such as interpersonal relationship, salary, supervision and company policy (Herzberg, 1966. There have two factors that are called hygiene fac...
Flow is a mindset that people feel when their mind is completely involved or focused on one specific task by losing track of time, unaware of fatigue, and oblivious to everything occurring around them except the task. Studies have that when an individual experiences flow they desire to experience the same joy again seeking after the same reasons. For the reasons that the person continues to set clear goals is flow compared to a motor for development of talent because as the person develops they must continually be actively involved in the skills they would love to develop. As the person begins to loss themselves subconsciously the person no longer stresses if they are amazing or not but more participate because of the joy felt during the activity. Lastly, the person must constantly find techniques to further their skills and continue to challenge them self or they may become bored bringing the motor to a halt or change of pace in development.
There were three different issues Csikszentmihalyi talked about in this chapter that affects our flow in the workplace. The first issue he talked about was how few jobs nowadays have clear goals. Our workers today don’t set any goals for themselves or their work place, causing them to not care if they don’t finish a task that day. We should be concerned with making clear goals and sticking to finishing them as a way to improve our job. The second reason mentioned is due to contemporary jobs seldom provide adequate feedback. Meaning they don’t give you feedback that will help you improve your skill sets or yourself as an employee. They simply tell you that you are doing just fine like everyone else you work with and to continue doing what
Motivation is an important function in organizations to motivate their employees for their ability to perform well, improving their skills, increasing productivity, job satisfaction and employee extension. Employees also are not a machines that we could just program their task in their brain and they will do it automatically, they require motivation to actually do their job properly. And so, after discussing the process models of the Maslow’s “Hierarchy of needs”, Douglas McGregor theory X and Y, and also the Herzberg’s “two factor motivation hygiene theory.” understanding the ways of motivating people, the human nature, and the substance of nature. I believe that the true motivation can only come from within and also managers can actually motivate all of their employees.
Job satisfaction is a person’s emotional reaction to aspects of works such as pay, supervision, colleagues, working condition, job security, company policies and support, benefits, promotion and advancement or to the work itself (French, 1990). In other words, job satisfaction is an individual’s emotional reaction to a specific job. Falkenburg and Schyns (2007) indicate that job satisfaction can be studied from different approaches. Job satisfaction can be seen as a result of different behaviours or as a cause of behaviour. Moreover, it can be seen as an overall feeling or involving of some aspects of the job and the work situation together contribute to the feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with work (Johansson, 2010).