Applied Motivation

 I. Group and project

In my previous work, I was a curriculum specialist in charged of developing math curriculum for a private Singaporean school. My team built the math curriculum including all explanations and exercises for primary and secondary school students. 

There are 4 people on my time. Every quarter, we have to finish building a certain grade level curriculum as a project. I am a senior curriculum specialists and there are 2 other curriculum associates working with me and another senior specialist.

II. Applied motivation

Although motivation was not an issue for that specific group, there are some motivational strategies that were used to get the group to finish the project on time. 

1.) Changing in management: This is about hygiene factors. In the beginning of our project, we had a different manager who was not very good because he tends to create a lot of unnecessary work for employees- works that later turn out to be a waste of time. After 6 months into developing our curriculum, the school hired a new head of curriculum and the working conditions improved drastically. This helps motivate us a lot more as I were going to quit after the first year, but after the change in management, I stayed and worked for the school for some more years.

2.) Opportunity for growth: Within the team itself, there is opportunity for promotion and growth according to performance. In the school, people in the curriculum team are also involved in teaching. There is also opportunity for us to work with various departments within the company, so team members don't feel like they are working a dead end job.

3.) Relatedness: Unlike other private schools in Saigon who tend to hire many foreigners from various countries. The Singapore school I worked for only hire mostly Vietnamese and Asian foreign nationals, so the company has a homogeneous culture making it very easy to coordinate and communicate in the work place. The curriculum team was very efficient and contains very little drama. People feel like they belong there.

4.) Complete facilities for basic needs: The school has excellent facilities for satisfying all employee's basic needs ensuring that all employees can stay and focus on work for a long time.

5.) Intrinsic motivation: Some curriculum designers and developers have very little experience interacting with and teaching students who will work with the curriculum they develop. In order to assist them with personal development and enhance the quality of the curriculum they develop, curriculum developers are required to work teaching position at the company where they get to interact and talk to grade students. This helps motivates employees as it switches up their routine and allows them to experience another side of the product they are developing.

6.) Extrinsic motivation: Additionally, the school also has a lot of extrinsic motivations such as discount programs for employee's children. This help motivate employees to do a good job. The office where we worked had a lot of services and infrastructure to render work experience as comfortable as possible. We are also provided with a lot of alternative textbooks and materials to develop our curriculum. 

III. Conclusion

In conclusion, I think 6 primary strategies were used by the company to motivate workers. They had a sound change in mid-tier management. They offered opportunities for growth and a highly culturally homogenous work environment with complete facilities for basic needs. In additions, they also provided some intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to incentivize team members to perform better.