Using critical thinking to make winning assignments

Okay, this week I want to using critical thinking to make winning assignments. Let's look at a sample question:

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT QUESTION
How can theories of motivation help us to motivate employees at a lower levels of the organization? (Use2 sources, 3,500 words, Double spaced, New Roman 12 pt font)

First, we need to understand what motivation theories we are going to discuss. Looking at our textbook, we find information on these theories:
a) Maslow's hierarchy of needs
b) Herzberg's two-factor theory
c) Expectancy theory

We are not going to go through each theory in detail. However, we will briefly look at how you might take ideas from Maslow (the hierarchy of needs) to begin to frame a discussion of motivation and low-level employees in an organization. You can follow the same pattern with any of the other motivational theories when you write out an assignment question.

In this assignment, the module tutor wants to read about your analysis and your ideas, not ideas you've found on the internet. Second hand opinions found in discussions on Maslow on the internet may look slickly written when you are having difficulty formulating your own opinions, but they are unoriginal and show that you haven't thought about the question deeply. The questions, such as the one above, are written so that you can draw on your own experience to back up arguments on motivational theory.

To begin the process of thinking deeply on this question, you should read your OB text to find the motivational theories you're going to use in your discussion. This will help you formulate ideas about how, to give one example, Maslow's theories could be used to motivate low-level employees in an organization.

Let's consider Maslow. Maslow develops a hierarchy of human needs beginning with simple needs such as food and shelter. At this level of the hierarchy, we can see that financial remuneration allows low-level employees in an organization to pay for their rent, food and other basic needs. Moving to the highest level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, we have to ask how the organization inspires low-level employees to (for example) get more education. Education and training helps employees to move from lower-level jobs to higher-level jobs. In writing about this, you need to consider how the organization might encourage employees to receive more education and training (or if this doesn't really happen).

I mentioned earlier that you are supposed to use critical thinking to back up your arguments. Using the example of Maslow's hierarchy of needs again, let's look at how you can structure a paragraph to make a critical argument that fulfills the needs of the topic.

Outline of a Paragraph Discussing the Use of Motivational Techniques on Low-level Employees in An Organization

Sentence 1 (Topic Sentence with Main Discussion Point) - Employees can satisfy the need for food and shelter, a basic need according to Maslow
Sentence 2 (Use of evidence to back up or disagree with the main point) - In Organization X (a fast food restaurant), the employees are all part-time and the salary could not be used to pay for their food and shelter
Sentence 3 (Analysis) - Because it is a part-time job, it is often difficult to get employees to come in for extra shifts because the job is not used to support them or pay for their rent.
Sentence 4 (More analysis) - When you were a manager at Organization X, you had difficulty filling all the shifts and found employees quit with little or no warning. This seemed to be because employees were not motivated at the most basic level to work for Organization X.

The question asks you to use 2 sources. Don't use the internet for this research. The University of Leicester has a Digital Library with good source materials that will help back up your arguments. Databases such as Business Source Premiere, JSTOR, Emerald Online and many others can assist you to find the kind of resources that your module tutors will expect to see cited within your assignments.

Until next time,

KB

Writing Around a Question on an Exam

In my posting of September 12, 2010 on exams, I mentioned that students "write around" a question on an exam. A student asked me in October for an example. This posting is an explanation of writing around the question.

Let's say that an exam asks you "to discuss how you would use motivation theory to inspire low-level employees in an organization." Furthermore, the question tells you that you will get 50% for writing on motivation theories or approaches and 50% for applying them to an explanation of how you will motivate low-level employees. This is a perfect scenario for a student, who is confused, to write around the question.

When a student writes around a question, there are usually two reasons. The first is, naturally that the student actually knows nothing about motivational theory. So, for their exam they write about motivating low-level employees, giving a lot of information, but don't relate it directly to any specific theory or approach. This means that the marker is faced with a lot of irrelevant information that is not directly related to theory. A student giving this response could not really pass. As far as the marker is concerned, the student has given no proof that they know any motivational theories as they have given no examples. In fact, the student may know motivational theories but may not understand that they should write specifically about them. Sadly, a marker cannot grade a student for anything but what they've written.

The second student understands all the theories but has no idea how to use them to discuss motivating actual employees. They give you a lot of information on the theories, but don't relate them to any actual example of how to motivate low-level employees. This student may pass, depending on whether or not they may have added any details that seem to be about motivating low-level employees, but they won't do well. If students want more information, I would be happy to write more on this subject in a future posting.

KB