WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 1

UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE

La Verne, California

MGMT 496: Seminar in Management

Senior Project Paper

TITLE: WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION

Trever Balestra

College of Business and Public Management

Organizational Management Department

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December 9, 2020

Abstract

The purpose of the research project is to understand the relationship between

the work ethic can quality of work life in regard to the employee and manager. How
does the employee to manager relationship positive or negatively effect the overall
quality of work being done. The first hypothesis being tested is, Employees’ creative
behaviors are effected by employee to manager relationship conflicts. This hypothesis
was supported by the data that was collected throughout the research. The second
hypothesis tested is, Manager’s performance goals moderate the relationships
between employees’ work behaviors and relationship conflicts. This hypothesis was
also supported by the data collected. The third and final hypothesis tested is, Workers
innovative behaviors are positively related to their job performance, and this
hypothesis was also supported through the data collected. The method in which the
data was collected was a nine question survey that was completed by 31 employees
who all work in the government sector and have a uniformed personnel as their
frontline manager. The questions contained in the survey were all centered around
either the quality of life at work or how work ethic is effected by the relationship that
the employee shares with the manager. The significance of this study was comparing
how the leadership differed if any in the military world over the civilian sector.
Specifically civilians having a uniformed personnel as a manager and the conflicting
leadership styles that the military brings when trying to manage a civilian employee
since they would have very minimum control over the employee. This will be a deep
dive into the different leadership theories the military utilizes and how the civilian work
force responds to those theories and leadership styles.
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When someone is new to a company or is a long-term employee, their

management plays a direct role in how that work center is perceived by that individual.

The direct managers attitude and work ethic is a direct correlation to how the company

as a whole operates. Therefore, a new employee is highly influenced by their first

interaction with how their manager is at work and this can either be positive or

negative. For the senior worker all it takes is a simple change in management to turn

their day to day work ethic as well as attitude upside down taking the most efficient of

workers and making them perform as if they were an entirely different person. Since

there is more than enough reason to believe the interactions that employees have with

their managers play a key role in their attitude towards the company as a whole as well

as their overall desire to preform above and beyond. Furthermore, creating a need to

look into the reasoning behind the change in work ethic and attitude seen within

employees determined on their managers attitude.

The purpose of this study is the determine the effects of employees positive or

negative interactions with their managers and how it determines their attitude towards

the company as well as their overall work performance. From this one may consider the

hypothesis that, Employees’ creative behaviors are affected by employee to manager

relationship conflicts. This is just one of the ideas on how an employee may respond to

negative leadership and poor management, the research will show how the person is

truly affected by their management or lack there of. One more hypothesis is how

Manager’s performance goals moderate the relationships between employees’ work

behaviors and relationship conflicts. This would suggest that managers hold the keys
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when is comes to the performance of an individual as well as how they are able to deal

with the problems that occur in their work center.

This research is of vast importance because it affects millions of people

throughout the world and is not limited on what job someone holds. This topic could

potentially solve real world problems that take place in the work centers globally daily

as well as add new pieces to the already existing literature on this subject. The research

will be helpful to every major as well as small business when it comes to recruiting and

retaining quality workers, if the management understands and is trained on this topic

then the company should see better retention and higher quality work being produced

as well as work center morale improving.

For the study we will be narrowing down the population of the workforce and

using the information provided by active duty military members along with civilians and

contractors who are employed by and work directly for uniformed personnel. This

limits the scope of the study because I will only be subjected to the information that

pertains specifically to military leadership and how they interact which is vastly

different than the normal work center management. Military leaders undergo training

on how to motivate and lead and they also have a different way of conversating

depending on the rank of the individuals, so dependent on the rank of the manger and

the employee they might not ever be able to have a personal conversation it might be

limited to only professional of business talk. The quality of life as well as emotional

attachment or detachment from military members feeling stuck and not liking their job
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will also play a role in the answers they give for the research. These are all things the

normal population does not deal with within their work centers.

There have been multiple studies conducted on the relationship between how

employees preform at work correlates to the attitude of their direct manager. These

studies also encompass how the employees view the company as a whole with these

negative or positive interactions with their supervisor. Manager to employee

relationship is also included in the organizational culture or a company, these are the

vales and beliefs that have existed within an organization since the start. Leaders and

first line managers are known to adjust their leadership behaviors to accomplish the

current mission of the organization but this shift in behavior may influence the job

satisfaction for the employees. This is why it is essential to understand and research the

relationship between the organizational culture of a business as well as how leadership

behavior may affect the employees. One research study conducted was focused on

nurses at a major hospital in Taiwan, the data that was collected was done by using a

structured questionnaire. There was 300 questionnaires handed out and 200

questionnaires were returned, once the data was received correlation analysis was

used to determine the results between organizational culture and leadership behaviors

in relationship to employee job satisfaction. The end result of this study showed that

the organizational culture is significantly correlated with the job satisfaction for

employees as well as the leadership behavior. This study reinforces the notion that

Manager’s performance goals moderate the relationships between employees’ work

behaviors and relationship conflicts.

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Performance Goals

The study conducted within the hospital showed the traditional two-

dimensional leadership model does not support employee morale or motivation. This

model of leadership focuses all of the concern on people and production leaving out all

of the external and internal factors driving employee motivation. With this model of

leadership, the performance goals set fourth are usually not realistic and not easily

attainable causing more employee dissatisfaction within their job.

Employees work behaviors

This study showed that the nurses job satisfaction correlates directly with their

perception of their manager being supportive and caring. Managers who have these

traits believe in the balance between power and being personal. This supports the

hypothesis that leadership behavior is positively correlated with job satisfaction.

Relationship Conflicts

The organizational culture determines the process in which professional

relationship conflicts are taken care of. This study showed that nurses who’s managers

were more personable felt more comfortable bringing up problems they had at work as

well as conflicts with coworkers. If the employee feels more comfortable within the

company and has confidence that their manager is going to look out for them, they are

more willing to bring their problems forward without fear of any pushback from

leadership. This also supports the hypothesis that Manager’s performance goals
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moderate the relationships between employees’ work behaviors and relationship

conflicts.

The current status of research on the topic of The Effects of Employees’

Interaction with their Managers on their Attitudes toward the Company is plentiful.

There are many proven instances of how the leadership of a company directly impacts

an employee’s mindset as well as creativity and overall work performance. A 2015

study performed by Gallup Business Journal studied the performance of hundreds of

companies and was able to successfully engage with 27 million employees over the last

two decades. This study looked to help unfold the mystery of why performance varies

from group to group within a work center. They wanted to find the connection

between fluctuations in work performance and consistent or lack of consistently

throughout management. A few of the finds throughout this extensive research show

how “Great managers create the right environment for engagement” (Harter, 2020).

Another take away from the study is the Gallup Business Journal found that

management talent exists in every company but those talents do not correlate directly

with getting put into a management position.

Morale

The status of an employee’s morale has shown to be directly related to the

relationship they share with their manager and overall leadership. Morale is effected by

how the manager treats their employees and motivates them to attain set goals. If a

manager sets a goal for the employee but does not provide the means or motivation
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and support to complete this goal it could lower the morale witch in turn effects the

overall work performance of the employee.

Performance

Employee’s typically emulate their managers behavior and work ethic.

According to the study performed managers, “create environments where employees

take responsibility for their own – and their team's – engagement and build workplaces

that are engines of productivity and profitability” (Harter, 2020). this shows that

leadership is in most cases directly responsible for the productivity and engagement

from the work center they manage. This study conducted enforces the hypothesis that

Workers innovative behaviors are positively related to their job performance.

A study was conducted on the leadership styles and practices demonstrated by

the Electricity Distribution Company of Pakistan that took place in six different districts

and 115 offices. This study compared the difference between the paternalistic

leadership style and servant leadership style and their results on employee attitude.

The results contribute directly to the literature by providing the evidence and

identifying which leadership style best benefits the workforce specifically in Asian

countries.

Loyalty and Trust from Employees

Managers and leadership overall seek out employees who are trust worthy and

loyal to the company who are willing to work for the company long term. These are

characteristics that are looked for in the hiring process as well as when it comes time to
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 9

promote an employee. To employ this mindset some leaders may take to the

Paternalistic leadership style which in theory is supposed to demand trust and loyalty

back from the employee. The biggest problem when it comes to employing this

leadership style is the group of people and their personalities, this will fully determine

the response given to such a dominant leadership style. This study showed that the

Paternalistic leadership was not received well and instead the servant leadership style

was best received by this group of individuals. This study was conducted in an Asian

country and the culture overall respects the servant leadership style more do to the

share of power across the board. Employees get more of a say in the operations and

the leader always puts his workers first.

Employee Attitudes

An employee’s attitude is everything, especially if they work in a customer service

or forward facing job since they are the introduction to a company to new customers.

You can assume a lot from an employee’s attitude towards their job from the study

conducted it was found that, “job attitudes are assessments of one’s job that express

one’s sentiments, convictions and attachment to one’s job” (Saari & Judge, 2004). This

means employee attitude may dictate their loyalty and trustworthiness and even

positively or negatively effect job performance. The employees attitude seems to

dictate a bulk of their overall work performance and since their attitude can be directly

contributed to their managers leadership style, this study reinforces the hypothesis
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that Employees’ creative behaviors are affected by employee to manager relationship

conflicts.

Performance and attitude are very critical when it comes to healthcare

employees, and this is why extensive research as been conducted on employees who

work in the heath care sector. Specifically, how first line management and leadership

can affect the overall performance of their employees. This study was done to

determine employee performance based on job satisfaction, leadership, work

commitment and job involvement and how management positively or negatively

effects these attributes. Research shows that an employee with a positive attitude is

more aware about the dynamics of business and is more likely to fine tune to their

organizational environment.

This study was conducted at a hospital located in Kerala state, India. The data

was collected on the basis of probability sampling method with 110 respondents. The

variables were job performance, job attitude, job commitment, and job involvement.

Job Satisfaction

Having Job satisfaction directly relates to someone having an appreciation for

their job experience. Working with a manager that you do not get along with or agree

with their leadership style makes for a bad experience at work every day. This would

mean that having a “bad” manager would coincide with an employee not having any

job satisfaction. This study also shows that having a motivational manager would

positively impact the job satisfaction of the employee.

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The end result of the study shows that job satisfaction and employ motivation is

influenced by the employee and manager relationship. Comparing the hypothesis that

Employees’ creative behaviors are affected by employee to manager relationship

conflicts to this study show that work related attitude, job satisfaction, leadership, job

commitment and involvement are directly influenced by each other.

Quality of life often is a direct correlation to how someone feels in regard to

their place of work, the average person in the united states spends more time at work

than they do at home with their family. Therefore, it is easy to understand how the

work center can dictate someone’s way of life and quality of life if they are working in a

negative or positive environment for hours of the day five to six days a week. With

people’s overall quality of life being at stake it intensifies the need and reason to

conduct research into how the average persons work life can be improved and the

causation of how and what can create that negative space for someone to be working

in every day. We can figure this out by breaking down the hypotheses discussed that

we are using for this research that is being conducted, the first hypothesis being,

Employees’ creative behaviors are affected by employee to manager relationship

conflicts. In this hypothesis the independent variable is the employee to manager

relationship conflicts, this is because depending on if these conflicts have a positive or

negative outcome it can greatly affect the dependent variable and how the employee

feels about the work center and his overall willingness to work at maximum effort. The

dependent variable is the employee’s creative behaviors, every employee is different

and each has their own way of achieving the same outcome of getting what ever job
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they are assigned done, the difference is their creative behavior in which they complete

this task. If they do not feel that their manager would be receptive to their way of

completing the task then they would be more unwilling to bring this information

forward to their manager and instead work the task given in a way that they saw could

have been improved upon. This directly affects the creative behavior and creates a

work center expectation that process improvement or new ideas of how to “work

smarter not harder” will not be received in a positive manner by the leadership,

therefore further suppressing the creativity of the workers and resulting in a decrease

in their overall quality of life. The theory that best outlines this hypothesis is “Maslow’s

hierarchy of needs” specifically the “safety needs” and “belongingness and love needs”

which are the two bottom sections of the triangle diagram that explains how the

hierarchy of needs works and how if the lower needs are not met there is no way to

also meet any needs above that section (see fig.1). Not allowing or encouraging

creative behavior from employees makes them feel unwanted in the work center as

well as unsecure with their job since they have the sense that they are not bringing

anything new to the company.

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There are a few different theories that are able to describe in depth the

correlation between a positive or negative relationship between managers and

employees and how it affects the employees’ work behavior. One theory that can

outline how the manger to employee relationship affects so much is the Systems

theory. The systems theory is able to analyze how the employee’s have to adapt to the

environment they are exposed to on a regular basis during the work day. The systems

theory shows that if a manager or leadership in general is negative and unproductive

the employee’s are going to adapt to that environment and their work behaviors are

going to drastically be influenced and they will also be less productive. This is due to the

social evolution and how the average person feeds off of someone’s mindset and

energy levels, if your manager is unmotivated and negative all of the time it will in turn

make the employee’s feel the same way. The hypothesis that, Manager’s performance

goals moderate the relationship between employee’s work behaviors and work

performance. The systems theory supports this hypothesis by explaining how if the

manager is not able to set goals conducive to encouraging work ethic and innovative

behavior then it will lower the work performance and hinder the work ethic because

the goals set were not realistic or unachievable. The independent variable in this

hypothesis is the performance goals set, and the dependent variables are the work

behaviors and work performance. The independent variable directly effects the

outcome because the performance goals are in place to determine the health of the

work center as well provide the metrics for how productive a worker is being and if

they deserve a raise or a potential promotion. So if those goals are not realistic or
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centered around helping the employee progress that it will greatly effect the work ethic

and could potentially change the employee’s work behavior in a negative manner if

they feel as though they are not working towards a realistic goal.

Employee’s have the human want for their basic needs to be met at the work center to

feel comfortable and be able to progress towards their higher potential, so you would

assume that leadership would provide the basic needs in order to support that growth.

The ERG (existence, relatedness, growth) theory explains how all humans need their

basic needs met first in order to progress on to the relatedness and growth phases of

their life and work performance level. The ERG theory supports the hypothesis that

workers innovative behaviors are positivity related to their job performance. If they

have a high and good work ethic and performance their innovative behaviors are

usually supported and positively reinforced. The independent variable are the

innovative behaviors and the dependent variable is the job performance. The ERG

theory explains how if the workers physiological needs are met then they can go on to

feeling comfortable which in turn supports the innovate behavior. The ERG theory is

able to work well if the employee is able to make it to the third section which I growth,

this is where the employee is able to do their self-development which includes personal

growth and advancement in the work place (see fig. 2). This reinforces the notion that if

an employee is able to reach the self-development section their job performance will

inherently increase showing the correlation between the independent and dependent

variables.
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Figure 2

Existence Relatedness Growth

In conducting the research on The Effects of Employees’ Interaction with their

Managers on their Attitudes toward the Company the deductive research process

should yield the best results. There have been multiple studies conducted on this

subject throughout the different fields of work all over the work that have yielded very

similar results that relate closely to all work centers regardless of the type of job. The

unit of analysis that will be analyzed for the study is a group of civilian workers who

have military leadership. I believe this will yield a result that has not really be

investigated too much yet, there is a whole sub culture within the military structure

and that consists of civilian’s whose bosses are uniformed personnel, which creates an

interesting dynamic. The interesting part is a uniformed personnel can not really dictate

what a civilian does or how they are promoted, so as a leader how do you get around

that and be successful. The cross-sectional design should be one of the better

approaches to tests the hypothesis because it is dealing with a very specific subset

group of people and that is something that the cross-sectional design works very well

with. There are many variables throughout this research into the subset of civilians with

military leadership, the independent variables from the hypotheses are, manager

relationship conflicts, performance goals, and job performance. The dependent

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variables are the employees creative and innovative behaviors along with work

behaviors and how relationship conflicts are handled.

There are a few different ways to measure the variables with the question of

how the relationship between manager and employee effect work performance. The

best way to go about this research for this subset of people will be a work center

survey, this is something that is very commonly used in the military already so everyone

should be versed in how to fill them out and also know the importance of being honest

on the survey as well. I will be able to reach a bigger audience this way and send people

who do not work locally this survey as well (see appendix 1). This survey will show the

correlation between having a positive or negative relationship with the manager as an

employee and how that effects the overall morale and work ethic. As well as if it effects

the employees overall personal and professional life.

This research will be conducted on a small population of civilians who work for

the government and have uniform personnel as their managers. This is a different

dynamic because the uniformed leaders are not legally able to make the civilians do

anything or control what they do as well when it comes to the work center. Even

though they have the same mission there is the legal barrier where the uniformed

personnel does not control the promotion, but they are able to influence the decision

made by the civilian boss. Also having uniformed personnel might be beneficial due to

the fact they have to go through professional leadership courses which most civilian
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 17

leaders do not have any in class experience. A survey will be posted as well as emailed

out to a sample size of over 100 personnel.

For my research on the Effects of Employees’ Interactions with their Managers

on their Attitudes toward the Company I created a survey that was nine questions long

and first sent it to a sample group of people before opening it up to the main

population to collect the rest of my data. The sample group of people comprised of

those who are contractors and civilians employed by the military who are managed by

an active duty personnel in uniform, this is to see how a military leader treats and leads

someone who is not also active in uniform. The population group is comprised of those

who are either currently active duty or in some regards employed by the military and

also have managers or supervisors who are also in uniform. My goal of this survey was

to collect the data from both the sample and population groups and then compare

them to see if they reinforce the hypothesis that Manager’s performance goals

moderate the relationships between employees’ work behaviors and relationship

conflicts. The sample group provided ample evidence that supports the hypothesis in

showing that depending on how the manager assigned work and to whom he assigned

certain tasks to that the coworkers would respond in a certain way and also how

different feelings about the Work Center as well as their overall fait and feelings

towards the company as a whole. If someone is getting assigned a bulk of the work load

and they have coworkers not working as hard but those same coworkers are receiving

as much praise as the one who is overloaded this seems to effect the overloaded

working in such a way that they usually have degraded morale and think less of the
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 18

manager because they do not think the work is being distributed evenly. The

population group shared the same thoughts, especially those currently active duty. The

active duty personnel usually get treated in such a manner that once you prove you are

a hard and consistent worker you are assigned a bigger workload than the average

person because your leadership knows that it will be done quick and done right the first

time. The saying in the military is “the reward for hard work is more work” and that has

held true for years. The sample and population groups are very similar in their

responses to the survey showing that the military leadership across the board create

the same responses from their employees regardless if they are civilians or active duty

military.

When it comes to analyzing the results of the survey overall the data shows that

most people are affected by the way their manager treats them as well as how their

personality matches with their manager. Also it seems as though people stated that

their work effort and motivation also stems from their managers work ethic and

weather or not their manager leads from the front or is the type of leader that will only

delegate the work instead of taking on certain tasks to help the office overall. Another

question that that yielded very close results between the two groups had to do with

the work quality of life, the results show almost an even split between agree and

disagree. This shows that half of those working for the military do not think they have a

good quality work life, this is associated with feeling like they are contributing to a

bigger picture or not understanding where they fit into the mission. From personal

experience I know that the military leadership is not very good at letting people know
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how and why their job is important and most people are not comfortable enough with

their leadership to ask the question for themselves. The survey was competed by 31

people and surprisingly the overall feedback and data shows that most people feel the

same and have the same wants and needs, the only question that was split was the

work quality of life question.

The results yielded from the survey enforce the hypothesizes that were

proposed, the data shows that employees are greatly effected by their relationship with

their managers in regards to morale and work ethic. The first hypothesis being;

Employees’ creative behaviors are effected by employee to manager relationship

conflicts.

This hypothesis is supported by the data collected from the survey and it is

clearly shown that the employees all agree that their quality of work as well as their

creative behaviors and work ethic is greatly effected by their manager and their

managers work ethic. If their manager has a good work ethic the employee is more

likely to reciprocate that work ethic if not work harder, it also works the other way if

their manager has a horrible work ethic as well. Below is question number three from

the survey showing how every one of the 31 participants in the survey, including both

sample and population groups all voted that their managers work ethic also effects

their quality or work as an employee. Below is one of the survey questions that shows

that 100% of the participants agree or strongly agree.

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Manager’s performance goals moderate the relationships between employees’ work

behaviors and relationship conflicts.

The second hypothesis proposed is also supported through the data retrieved

from the survey by showing how employees are either comfortable or not comfortable

with bringing personal issues to their leadership. Also the survey shows that employees

who have a good relationship with their managers or supervisors are more motivated

at work and more willing to provide a quality work ethic. Below is question six and nine

which show this hypothesis to be true in regard to the questions asked in this survey.
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 21

Workers innovative behaviors are positively related to their job performance.

The third hypothesis is also very much supported by the end results of the

survey and the data compiled from the answers given. The results show an

overwhelming negative or positive response to the employee’s innovative behaviors

and work ethic in regards to their job performance. The survey shows that the

employees work performance and morale goes down when they have a negative

relationship with their manager showing that their creative and innovative behaviors
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 22

will also be affected. Employees seem less likely to put in extra effort to problem solve

or create new effective ways of process improvement if they have a negative

relationship with their manager. Below are questions two and seven, the data from

these questions show how the manager to employee relationship effect the employees

work ethic as well as their innovative and creative behaviors.

The work force has never been perfect, and more attention needs to be paid to the

relationship between work ethic and morale that employees posses in regards to the

way their managers treat them. This problem is the purpose for the study that has been

conducted and hopefully inspires more research and in-depth study into how to better

deal with this problem as well as how to choose better leaders and provide training to
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 23

up and coming managers to understand these problems and change their leadership

style to better fit the situation at hand. Throughout this research three hypotheses

were investigated and were supported by the survey completed by the sample and

population groups. The first hypothesis investigated was, Employees’ creative behaviors

are effected by employee to manager relationship conflicts. This hypothesis was

supported and proved by the data analyzed from the survey that was completed. The

data showed that employees who have a negative relationship with their manager are

less likely to put effort into the creative efforts of process improvement and instead do

the bare minimum at work. This data was shown when 100% of the 31 participants

stated that their work ethic improves when they have a positive relationship with their

manager. The second hypothesis that was investigated is, Manager’s performance goals

moderate the relationships between employees’ work behaviors and relationship

conflicts. The data from the survey also supported this hypothesis by showing how if

employees feel more important they work harder and have higher morale and a better

quality of life at work. The third and final hypothesis researched was, Workers

innovative behaviors are positively related to their job performance. This hypothesis

was also supported by the data compiled and analyzed from the survey given. The data

showed how if the employees work ethic is impacted by the manager or any outside

influences than their innovative behavior is effected in way where they are more likely

to do the bare minimum then put the extra effort in.

The data collected from the survey that was sent to 31 people very clearly

shows how much of an impact the manager to employee relationship has on

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determining the work ethic and innovation of the employee. Every person who took

the survey regardless of if they were in the sample group or the population group were

split almost exactly in half between the agree and strongly agree options on the survey

when it came to the questions regarding if their relationship with their manager

effected their work ethic. Another notable finding from the data is that the answers

were very split when it came to talking about the quality of their work life. Many

people put that they are not satisfied with their work life, this means that even if they

had a positive relationship with their manager or anyone in leadership they would more

likely than not have a lesser work ethic due to them not enjoying their job as much as

someone who is satisfied with their work life. The data overall is in support of all of the

hypotheses presented in that over 90% of all 31 participants either agree or strongly

agree that their managers work ethic along with the type of relationship they have with

their manager greatly effects their personal work ethic and motivation to do better at

work.

Once the survey was completed by the sample and population group it was very

easy to see the similarities to the previous research that has been conducted regarding

the manager to employee relationship and the connection to positive or negative work

ethic. The survey data shows how employees work ethic is almost fully reliant on the

managers work ethic, this is very similar to the first research study referenced in

chapter two that was conducted at a hospital in Taiwan. This study showed how the

organizational culture as a whole directly correlated with the job satisfaction and work

ethic of the employees, this shows how leadership sets the stage when it comes to the
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 25

overall morale and wok ethic of a company. The next study referenced in chapter two

was performed by Gallup Business Journal and helped show how good and bad

leadership effect the overall performance of the work center. This study showed that

one of the biggest problems is managers and leaders not using the right leadership

style for their position or function in the company which is why so many employees

push back because they do not relate to the leadership tactics being employed. The

same is shown in the data pulled from the survey, in that employees work ethic goes

down if they do not have a positive relationship with their supervisor. More often than

not the reason for the bad relationship is due to the manager not using the right

leadership style for that person, a manager my have to utilize many leadership styles

within one work center alone and that often times goes overlooked. This relates

directly to the ERG Theory because the employees need to have their psychological

needs met first before they are able to progress to the next stage which is being

comfortable in the work center which in turn relates to better work ethic overall and

overall better morale. Meeting an employees psychological needs is done by utilizing

the leadership style that fits that individual, one of the problems with leadership is a

very general style of leadership is used to try and lead the masses but only a few will

follow with that model of leadership. All of the hypotheses researched relate to

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how if utilized the employees would have a better

quality of life at work as well as a better relationship with their manager as well. Again

the biggest step to overcome for a manager is to provide the physiological needs for
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 26

the employees so they can advance to the next steps in the theories and become better

workers overall.

When I comes to researching how an employee feels about his or her work

center and leadership there is a multitude of factors at play, including both internally at

work as well as externally at home and other outside influences. So it is very difficult If

not impossible to control any of these factors so when trying to collect data some

people will bring their pre existing negative feelings and experiences into the sampling

and data collection process. Even though the collection technique used for this

research was done via a survey and sent to a fairly controlled group of people I believe

that the personal interviews are where the most data and best overall feel from the

employees would be gathered. So for future research I would recommend that the

data is collected through face to face or over the phone interviews instead of the

survey method, the survey method also allows for the individuals to fly through the

questions without too much thought or feedback so they could provide answers

without really understanding the questions given. Also a standard sampling tool that

will compile the data into graphs as well as organize the numbers given in a survey into

groups and percentages. Through my research I was not able to find a free tool to

provide this service, I was able to get the bare minimum but ended up having to add

the numbers and figure out the percentages myself along with creating the graphs. The

research that has been conducted on management has always shown how much of an

impact the leaders and front line supervisors have on the employees work ethic and

overall attitude towards the company. This is especially true in the military where every
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 27

leader is expected to “lead from the front” and lead through their actions. One thing

this research has shown was that even though the military bodies have under gown

professional leadership schools they still were not all successful in leading their people

in the right direction and maintaining a good relationship with their employees. This

shows how the current day selection for leaders and leadership training is

systematically failing and has been detrimental throughout the work force. One way to

improve management practices is to only allow leaders to be in positions they have

experience with, if someone has had no experience in warehouse organization, they

shouldn’t be the warehouse manager, same with a supply job. Also training for

management should not just be a one time thing and then its done, it should be an

ongoing process that forces the manager to constantly learn and understand new

leadership techniques as well as how to handle the new generation of work force. The

things to improve on in management is to put more focus on the employees needs

instead of constantly preaching “mission first” the mission will get completed but if no

employee wants to work there then it would be completed in the manner it should be

or even close to the quality it could have been. Improvements need to be made to the

management training in teaching more employee based leadership and personal

connection, people are at work more than they are with their own family at home so a

work center should be comfortable and a place where the employees needs are met.
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 28

Appendix

2020 work center Survey

I am Satisfied with my work Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly

life Agree Disagree
My managers/supervisors Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly
Personality effects my quality Agree Disagree
of work
My Managers/Supervisors Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly
work ethic effects my quality Agree Disagree
of work
The relationship with my Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly
managers/supervisors effect Agree Disagree
my quality of work
Good or bad leadership is a Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly
reflection of the company as a Agree Disagree
whole
Having a good relationship Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly
with your Agree Disagree
Managers/Supervisor make
you more motivated
Having a bad relationship with Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly
your Managers/Supervisor Agree Disagree
make you less motivated
My job allows me to maintain Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly
a healthy personal life Agree Disagree
I am comfortable bringing Strongly Agree N/A Disagree Strongly
personal issues to my Agree Disagree
management
 WORK PERFORMANCE AND MOTIVATION 29

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