A Metamotivational Approach to Understanding Managers’ Beliefs About Motivationally Diverse Teams in the Domain of Regulatory Mode
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Date
2023-09-26
Authors
Jansen, Erik
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Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
Cultivating effective teams requires managers to integrate the efforts of individuals who often vary in their backgrounds, skills, and identities. One way that team members can differ from each other is in their motivational orientation, or the reasons and ways that people pursue goals. Extant literature demonstrates that the complementary nature of two regulatory mode motivational orientations (locomotion and assessment) can benefit the performance of individuals and teams. Yet relatively little is known about what managers believe about how to manage this type of motivational diversity in teams. In this dissertation, I combine insights from the literature in motivation science, team management, and diversity to propose a novel perspective on managing motivation in teams. The first part of this dissertation (Studies 1-3) examines what people believe about the role of regulatory mode motivation in teams. Study 1 demonstrates that people, on average, recognize the differential benefits of locomotion and assessment for task performance. Using complementary methodologies, Studies 2 and 3 revealed that although people perceive motivationally diverse (vs. homogenous) teams as prone to conflict (Study 2), when prompted to describe their beliefs about motivation in teams they also recognize its potential benefits (Study 3). Following this, in the second part of this dissertation (Studies 4 and 5) I draw on recent advances in the management of team diversity to examine the strategies managers use when managing motivation in teams. In both hypothetical (Studies 4A and 4B) and consequential (Study 5) contexts, managers recognized the differential utility of different kinds of management strategies and were sensitive to intrateam dynamics in motivationally diverse and homogenous teams, but did not vary their use of different kinds of management strategies when managing motivational diversity in teams. By focusing on what managers themselves believe and do when managing motivational diversity in teams, this research offers a novel perspective on an understudied area of team management with implications for the theoretical and practical study of team management.
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Keywords
psychology, management, motivation, organizational behaviour, teams