Motivation and Work Paper – Lawrence and Nohria Theory
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Motivation and Work Paper – Lawrence and Nohria’s Theory
Introduction
The reason why some people tend to succeed at work while others do not, may not be easy to understand. The answer to this question can be found in Lawrence & Nohria’s Emotional Drives or Needs Theory, which tries to explain more in the field of organizational behavior (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). The study of organizational behavior may help understand how people tend to react to certain stimuli in an organization. Organizational behavior is simply the study of both group and individual performance and activity within an organization. It is the organizational behavior that determines motivation, quality, and the level of work being done. One of the most important elements that drive an organization is employee motivation. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss how Lawrence & Nohria’s emotional theory can be applied in working teams, leadership styles, managing power and influence, communication, and managing conflicts to improve organizational performance.
Lawrence and Nohria’s Emotional Theory
Lawrence and Nohria’s Emotional Theory is also called the Four-Drive Theory. It was introduced by Harvard Business School professors Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria. Based on their review of existing research, the two professors identified four drives that seem relevant to everyone (Gulati et al., 2017). These drives include the drive to acquire, the drive to defend, the drive to bond, and the drive to learn. Drive to acquire reflects the drive to take, seek, control, and retain objects and personal experiences. It extends beyond basic food and water and includes the need for recognition and relative status in society (Gulati et al., 2017). Therefore, the drive to acquire is the basis for competition in an organization.
The drive for a bond is the drive to form social relationships and establish mutual communities with other people. It motivates individuals to cooperate and improves collaboration. It is, therefore, essential for a successful organization and development of societies (Gulati et al., 2017). The drive to defend creates a fight or flight response in the face of personal danger. However, it goes beyond protecting one’s physical self. It includes defending an individual’s relationships, acquisitions, and belief systems. The drive to defend is always reactive-it is triggered by threat. The drive to learn involves becoming curious to find solutions to many problems. Humans have an innate drive to satisfy their curiosity, to know, to comprehend, to believe, to appreciate, to develop understandings or representations of their environment and themselves through a reflective process; the drive to learn (Gulati et al., 2017). Therefore, Lawrence and Nohria’s Emotional Theory can be applied in various aspects of the organization.
Working in teams
The four emotional drives, as described above, can benefit a working team by helping the members to have a better understanding of what motivates a person. Each one of the four drives contributes to working teams in one way or the other. Sometimes people who are expected to perform better may perform below average because they are not motivated (Abdulmelike, 2018). One might wonder and ask questions about why these individuals perform below average. The problem can be perceived from the perspective of emotional drives or needs theory. The question that one should ask is whether all the four drives are met by all the team members (Gulati et al., 2017). As a team leader, it is essential to be an active listener to assess all the team members.
Lawrence and Nohria’s Emotional Drive/Theory has had a significant influence on my working teams. To be more specific, the drive to learn has significantly influenced the teams’ success (Gulati et al., 2017). In the navy, before I became a leader, I was always involved in various teams before and even now, I continue operating in different teams. The drive to learn instills a certain curiosity in each one of the team members making them develop a certain characteristic of a vigorous mind. In these groups, people have the thirst for knowledge, which is a natural thirst that is never quenched (Abdulmelike, 2018). The drive to learn creates a healthy learning environment within the working teams because members do not wait to be pushed to practice and attend lessons. They go by themselves. They ask questions regarding things that they do not understand and seek answers (Abdulmelike, 2018). Members are free to talk to each other and seek assistance in areas of their weakness. The drive to learn allows team members to be perfect.
In my previous working teams and current ones in the military, there are rewards for people who practice hard or smart and those standing out over other team members. For instance, the best shooter within a team gets a reward. The drive to acquire promotes very tough competition within the working teams (Gulati et al., 2017). In my working team, members strive to acquire recognition, rewards, and others benefits. The drive to acquire is what drives competition within the teams. In the military, the primary objective when going to war is to conquer. This belief is driven by the drive to acquire. The drive to acquire victory is what motivates the military in their teams as they lead to fighting against wickedness.
The drive to acquire goes hand in hand with the drive to defend. When you acquire something, you now fight to defend it, or else, it returns to where it came or gets snatched away by another person (Gulati et al., 2017). This is another source of motivation for team members to practice hard to retain rewards or recognition within the teams and the entire military fraternity. The drive to defend is mostly achieved through an employee’s feeling of alignment and connection to the organization. The drive to defend is very relevant in the military, it makes the working teams understand the literal meaning of their role, which is defense. The military defends the nation and its boundaries from external threats.
The drive to bond is the backbone of working teams. This drive reflects an element of a working team that keeps it in existence. People can only come in a group or a team if they are bonded to one another in one way or the other. In my working team, the drive to bond makes everyone embrace teamwork (Gulati et al., 2017). It enhances collaboration and cooperation to ensure the team members work towards a common goal. Within the working teams, members develop friendships and bonding. This enables team members to depend on one another or to seek help from others (Abdulmelike, 2018). Therefore, Lawrence and Nohria’s Emotional Drive/Theory has had positive impacts on working teams in my workplace environment.
Leadership styles
Lawrence and Nohria’s Emotional Drive/Theory has had a great influence on my leadership style and the entire leadership of the military. Being a Chief (E7) in the Navy I have had the privilege of leading personnel in multiple tours of duty that were rewarding and some that were not so rewarding. With the influence of Lawrence and Nohria’s Emotional Drive/Theory, my leadership style falls under the transformational side (Buil et al., 2019). As a transformational leader, I often apply Lawrence and Nohria’s four emotional drives to encourage, inspire, and motivate my juniors to succeed in their career as navy officers. I motivate them to innovate and create change that will help them grow and shape the future success of the defense force. I also believe that I practice servant leadership style because I freely interact with all the employees and military officers (Buil et al., 2019). Being a servant leader allows me to be more personal with the people I lead and the coaching allows me to effectively communicate what the expectations are and helps with individual personalities.
Each of the four drives of Lawrence and Nohria’s emotional theory influences my current leadership styles. For instance, the drive to learn allows me to challenge the status quo and embrace innovation and organizational change that can improve military operations (Buil et al., 2019). I only do this within my capacity to ensure I do not trespass to other jurisdictions. The drive to learn is what motivates transformational leaders to encourage creativity among followers. Transformational leaders normally encourage followers to explore new ways of doing things as well as new opportunities (Buil et al., 2019). The drive to learn allows transformational leaders to provide opportunities for continued education to enable employees to grow their careers and become accessible to many opportunities.
The drive to bond is important in ensuring a healthy relationship between the organizational leadership and the employees. In my current workplace, the drive to bond has played a significant role in developing transformational leadership (Gulati et al., 2017). Individualized consideration is an attribute of a leader that cannot be put into practice without the drive to bond. In my workplace as a leader, I utilize the drive to bond to offer support and encourage individual navy officers by keeping open communication with them. Being a servant leader allows me to be more personal with the people I lead and the coaching allows me to effectively communicate what the expectations are and helps with individual personalities.
The drive to acquire and defend our greatest motivation of a transformational leader. I often try so hard to defend my integrity and to acquire more respect and recognition as a leader. These two drives make me lead by role more to defend the trust my juniors have in me and to acquire more knowledge and respect and to show others what they are expected of (Gulati et al., 2017). In the military, as a development tool, transformational leadership has spread already in all sectors to improve change, innovation, and employee experience.
Managing power and influence
Lawrence and Nohria’s emotional theory also has had an impact on managing power and influence within the organization. Power is the ability to influence the behavior of other people by using a variety of tactics to prompt actions (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). However, it does not involve moving individual emotions. Influence on the other hand occurs when one’s emotions are affected. Influence is an important component of a leader’s ability to use power and maintain respect in an organization. The ability to influence is an important asset for leaders. Power and influence may be misused or may produce negative results when not properly managed.
Each of the four drives highlighted in Lawrence and Nohria’s emotional theory can have an impact on managing power and influence within an organization. For instance, the drive to acquire and defend manifests significantly in power and influence management. All humans want to get to power and all want to influence others (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). In the military, the motivation that drives one to work hard is to acquire power and influence. As a Chief in the military, I used my theory to influence at least 15 out of 20 people under me to become my followers. As long as I had the majority onboard then we could get the mission done effectively even if we had some bad apples.
To manage power and influence to gain followers, the drive to defend my dignity and respect was paramount. Defending dignity and respect also means defending power and influence (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). People in power and who have influence can manage their power and influence well only by making a healthy relationship with those around them. People who use power wrongly are malice and unable to develop a good relationship with others. The drive to bond makes those who have power and influence in the military be remorseful, empathetic, and uphold good morals. Military operates by creating mutual social relationships since everyone has a role to play towards victory, success, and goals. Therefore, powerful and influential leaders have no choice but to ensure working relationships (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). Without the drive to bond collaboration and mutual social relationships cannot exist.
Communication
Communication is a very wide spectrum of behavioral needs, skills, means, and tools for self-expression. Communication expressed own values, decisions, thoughts, and attempts. Some people have incorporated communicative abilities (Haroon & Malik, 2018). Such people are more social and have better communication with others, and more precisely transmit their stances. Others have to learn communication by attending various classes and training. However, compunction happens only if there are specific drivers that make it necessary (Gulati et al., 2017). The drive to learn, the drive to defend, the drive to bond, and the drive to acquire are all drivers of communication. They motivate employees to communicate as well as improve communication within the workplace.
Communication is another important area where Lawrence and Nohria’s emotional theory has greatly impacted my workplace. For example, the drive to learn has increasingly improved communication among both the juniors and seniors in the military (Haroon & Malik, 2018). There must be an effective communication channel and medium to ensure effective learning. Learning begins with interest and curiosity to understand something. The solution is to find either instructor or a friend to take the individual through the whole process, which needs both effective communication and close relationship.
The drive to bond improves the communication within the organization. People develop close and open communication due to the drive to bond. Therefore, Lawrence and Nohria’s emotional theory improves communication in all organizations where is it applied (Gulati et al., 2017). With a glance, military members know if they are talking to an Officer who has “Command Power” under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, or a Non-Commissioned Officer who typically is the actual worker who gets the job done. All these are possible due to the drive to learn, the drive to bond, the drive to defend, and the drive to acquire.
Managing conflict
Workplace conflict is inevitable since it involves employees from various backgrounds and different work styles. Conflict occurs at all levels within the organization. Conflict, in the workplace, can manifest in various ways such as insults, noncooperation, bullying, and anger (Gummere, 2020). Its causes can range from personality clashes and misunderstood communication to organizational mismanagement. The negative effects of workplace conflict can include work disruptions, decreased productivity, project failure, absenteeism, turnover, and termination. Therefore, managing conflict is important.
Each of the four elements of Lawrence and Nohria’s emotional theory has had a significant influence on conflict management within the navy base. The drive to defend the mission and vision of the navy base, the entire defense force, and the nation calls for proper skills and ways of managing conflict between employees, leaders, and navy officers (Gummere, 2020). The military has the best conflict management strategies and it is not easy to experience severe conflicts between people, except in a few instances. The drive to defend the nation and the organization above personal interest has instilled good discipline in people working in the military which helps in easy management of conflict. This instance itself is motivation and source of behavior change to minimize conflict. The drive to bond among military officials plays an important role in conflict management. Many of the training in the military is designed in such a way to make them believe in unity as a team (Gummere, 2020). In the military, people work as a team and not individually, something that makes them bond or develops good relationships with one another. This drive to bond or brotherhood in the military contributes significantly to conflict management.
Conflict management is majorly impacted by organizational leadership. Good leadership will minimize conflict by defending individual interests, being a role model, or putting in place better methods of conflict management. Lawrence and Nohria’s emotional theory has a positive impact on leadership. In such cases, there will not be conflicts related to governance (Gulati et al., 2017). Also, a leader who is heard and respected among personnel has the power to effectively manage conflict. For instance, Lawrence and Nohria’s drive relate to my personality because my leadership style is that of a coach (Gulati et al., 2017). I am an ethical leader who is honest, considerate, and understanding. I am fair, but firm and always looking out for my personnel. I am driven and determined never letting roadblocks or hurdles stand in the way. I always seek additional challenges and responsibilities. I am very passionate and often I bring out my emotions which makes me more respected. I have been able to manage many conflicts and resolve them because of the respect and dignity I uphold.
Conclusion
People perform differently at the workplace based on their emotional drives. Lawrence & Nohria’s Emotional Drives or Needs Theory tries to explain some issues that affect employee motivation. According to the theory, the four drives include the drive to bond, the drive to learn, the drive to acquire, and the dive to defend. This paper has explained how Lawrence and Nohria’s Emotional Theory can impact various elements of a workplace environment.
Reference
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Buil, I., Martínez, E., & Matute, J. (2019). Transformational leadership and employee performance: The role of identification, engagement and proactive personality. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, 64-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2017.10.004
Gulati, R., Mayo, A. J., & Nohria, N. (2017). Management: An integrated approach. MA Cengage Learning.
Gummere, P. N. (2020). Perceived Conflict Management Styles of Leaders Who Are Military Veterans: A Case Study (Doctoral dissertation, Grand Canyon University). https://www.proquest.com/docview/2439636245?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
Haroon, H., & Malik, H. D. (2018). The impact of organizational communication on organizational performance. Journal of Research in Social Sciences, 6(2), 140-151. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2413012009?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
Uhl-Bien, M., Piccolo, R. F., & Schermerhorn Jr, J. R. (2020). Organizational behavior. John Wiley & Sons.