Question

If you realized in the first week that the grading standards for an ‘A’ in this course could not be met how might that influence your motivation to study and complete assignments? Can this idea be applied to unrealistic standards in a manufacturing setting?

Answer 1

If I realized in the first week that the grading standards for an "A" in this course could not be met then it would severely affect my motivation to study and complete assignments. When any person knows it's an impossible task, they are not even motivated to try for the same. This is a classic example of setting unrealistic goals and then failing to achieve it. That is why it is said that the goals might be hard to achieve but they should still be achievable and realistic and this is how we set the proper motivation for any goal.

This idea can be easily applied in a manufacturing setting as well. This actually happens a lot of times that the manufacturing goals are so unrealistic that the workforce is clearly aware of such fact and are not motivated to work at all. Instead they are lethargic and perform their work in a very monotonous manner as they have already blocked their minds with the fact that this goal cannot be achieved so why should they put in any extra effort.

The above case becomes extremely dangerous in a manufacturing setting where the standards are unrealistic and even the bonus of workforce are linked to such standards which might lead to labour unrest and strikes by the workforce.

Hence it is very very important for manufacturing entities to set up realistic and achievable standards so that the workforce is not demotivated and instead they are motivated to put in their best to achieve the given target. Some things which could help with this includes performance linked incentives and some lump-sum bonuses for achieving a particular target. If the trend has been observed that there is usually an increase in efficiency of production by 5% over each year, then the target for next year should not be more than 6-7%. If the target is set at 10% it will be unrealistic and will instead drop the efficiency of workers.