Holistic performance assessment PART 7/7 : Contribution of the operating environment

In this series of seven articles I want to focus on the qualitative assessment part of the holistic project assessment method that I created back in 2004. These articles focus on the part that assesses the working environment i.e. the human factors that affect the project performance and project to project learning.

The working environment is affected by the organization(s), groups, individuals, information systems and software involved in the project/operations. These are all factors that are very difficult to evaluate accurately and objectively.

The theoretical framework of the human part of the assessment method includes systems thinking, living systems theory, the holistic concept of man, hyperknowledge environment and motivational and behavioral theories. I will also dig into the theory behind each article in this series.

The parts of this article series are:

1. Communication efficiency
2. Efficiency of knowledge conversion
3. Organizational support for knowledge creation
4. Ability of working method to support decision making
5. User-friendliness of the tools and their correspondence to natural human behavior
6. Technical usability of the tools
7. Contribution of the operating environment

Now, let's get going with the seventh and last part.

Part 7/7 : Contribution of the operating environment

The motivation of the team is very important for the result to be achieved. People have the free will to act and a motivated employee acts in the best interest of both themselves and the organization. Motivation is influenced by e.g. the person's attitude towards that task. There are four basic requirements for effective action in any situation: motivation, skill, biological structure and function, and a supportive environment. Of these, the contribution of the environment can be examined by means of four operational factors which should be included in the optimal responsive environment. These contributory factors are examined using a differentiated grading scale. However, it must be borne in mind that, for example, individuals' goals are individual and thus the contribution of the environment varies depending on the evaluator.

Consistency with individual goals                        1       2       3       4       5

Harmony with individual abilities                        1       2       3       4       5

Ability to provide necessary resources                  1       2       3       4       5

Ability to provide an atmosphere conductive

to effective operations                                         1       2       3       4       5

Theory of Motivation and Behaviour

The idea that man has free will (man is a subject with sovereignty and not just an object of external coercion) is based on the fact that man acts (does many things in certain situations). Because man acts, he/she can act. The word can has two different meanings. First, it may signify a person’s ability to do something. Secondly, if it is possible to act in a certain way, then there is an opportunity for that action. The possibility for action that the opportunity offers or justifies sometimes means a logical, sometimes a physical, and sometimes a human opportunity. Man’s intention to do something is a slightly different thing. A person cannot plan to do something that he thinks he/she cannot do. A person may have an intention to try to do something or he/she may have an intention to learn to do something. A person can also try to learn to do something. [1]

The concept of full-fledged act is based on the idea of human intention. A person may have an intention that he or she will either carry out or not carry out. If he/she implements his/her intentions, he/she has acted intentionally. A person may have an intention to act in a certain way or he/she may have an intention to achieve a certain outcome [2]. A person may have two kinds of motives to carry out his/her intention: a motive of desire or a motive of obligation. Thus, a person’s intention may be based on his or her own desire or it may be based on his or her obligation to do something. According to psychological hedonism, man always acts through the ultimate motive (based on desires and avoidance). In carrying out a duty-based task, his/her ultimate motive is to avoid the sanctions that result from failure to perform the duty. In renouncing his/her duty, a person’s desire to do something else is so strong that he/she is willing to endure sanctions. [1]

So man has the free will to act in situations where he/she is able to act. The intention plays an important role in the implementation of the action. Every person has the ultimate motives for acting in a certain way. In the work environment, people's motives must be taken into account when designing and selecting planning and information management methods. It is important that a person is motivated to use certain planning and information management methods of their own free will.

Motivation

According to Ruohotie [3], motivation refers to a system of factors that stimulate and control human behavior. Motivation is called the pre-decision state. The post-decision state, in turn, is the will. Motivation is a state that is achieved through motives. Motives are related with needs, desires, drives, internal incentives, rewards, and punishments. They thus tune and maintain the general direction of an individual’s behavior. Motives can be either conscious or unconscious, but they are always goal-oriented. The motivational phenomenon can be characterized by three characteristics: vitality, direction, and system orientation. Vitality is the energy force of an individual that drives him/her to behave in a certain way. Direction refers to the goal-orientation of motives i.e. an individual’s behavior is directed toward something. System orientation refers to the forces within an individual and his or her environment that, through the feedback process, either reinforce the intensity of his or her needs and the direction of his or her energy, or cause him or her to give up the direction of his or her actions and redirect his or her efforts.

According to Juuti [4], motivation is a system of factors that stimulate and control behavior, a state created by motives. Motivated behavior is goal-oriented and appropriate. Thus, reflexive behavior is not a motivated activity. Motivated behavior is characterized by the fact that the behavior is a voluntary and controlled activity under the will of the individual. In an organization, many factors affect a person’s motivation, and the functioning and productivity of an organization depends to a large extent on the motivation of the people who belong to it. The level of motivation of the staff becomes even more significant when the functions of the organization are performed with new technology, in which case the significance of each decision and function is multiple compared to working in traditional ways.

Motivation arises as a result of a certain type of process. A motivated person is in a state of tension and seeks to reduce that state of tension caused by the dissonance between his or her own goals and objectives and his or her current state. If a person cannot achieve the goals he or she admires and values, he or she becomes frustrated or stressed. [4]

Motivation is situational and dynamic in nature, meaning it can vary from situation to situation. Motivation can be divided into situational motivation and general motivation. Situational motivation is related to a specific situation where internal and external stimuli excite a set of motives and elicit goal-oriented action. General motivation, in turn, emphasizes the persistence of behavior. In this case, motivation describes the general direction and vibrancy of the behavior i.e. a kind of average level. Situational motivation is strongly dependent on general motivation. General motivation is sometimes confused with attitude, but they still have differences. Attitude is a relatively permanent, internalized, and slowly changing readiness to react. Motivation, on the other hand, is quite short-lived and usually relates to only one situation at a time. Attitude has a greater effect on the quality of the activity and motivation on the vibrancy at which the activity is performed. [3]

Attitude

Attitude is a fairly persistent and consistent way for an individual to approach a particular object. Attitude is a part of an individual’s inner psychic world that describes their internal cognitive processes and influences his or her actions [4]. Attitudes consist of three components [5]:

? cognitive component (individual's knowledge and beliefs about the object)

? affective component (individual's feelings and emotional reactions to the object)

? behavioral component (individual's intentions to act in a certain way based on an attitude towards an object).

The different components of an attitude interact with each other and one strives for harmony and consistency between the different components of attitudes. For example, if a person has a negative feeling of an object, he or she only collects negative information about that object. Dissonance between components (a mismatch between behavior and either the affective or cognitive component) causes the person unpleasant feelings that he or she seeks to avoid. [4]

Flow

Daniel Goleman has called the state of mind where a person likes what he or she is doing as flow. Flow encourages people to get the best possible outcome regardless of the task at hand. The flow takes over when a person is allowed to use all his/her abilities and stretch for even slightly better performance than expected. Man delves into his/her challenges so closely that he/she may lose his/her sense of time as he/she concentrates on his/her task. Flow is the best possible source of motivation and during it motivation is built-in - work itself is a matter of joy. [6]

The flow sets traditional notions of employee motivation questionable. People can be rushed and given feedback through incentives, but the strongest motivation comes from within and not from outside. Traditional incentives do not make people work as well as their abilities would let them and only those who genuinely like their work and enjoy doing it will reach the top. Emotions are the fuel of motivation and motivation in turn influences what a person perceives and does. So good work starts with a good feeling [6]. Goleman [6] has also illustrated the qualities of a job excellence through three general motivational skills:

? ambition (desire to improve or strive for better performance)

? commitment (embracing the goals of the group or organization)

? initiative and optimism (dual ability that makes people seize an opportunity and prevents them from getting discouraged by obstacles and setbacks).

Motivation and the Brain

From a neurological point of view, different motives are apparently associated with different combinations of brain chemicals, and the brain pathways on which general motivation is built are located in the amygdala. The memory banks of the amygdala and its associated tracks store learned emotions that make one activity seem more pleasant than another. People whose amygdala does not function normally suffer from motivational disorders. They don’t know how to prioritize things and when nothing really matters, the result is either crippling indifference or unbridled gratification of desires. [6]

Neurological motivational pathways are connected to the frontal lobes i.e. the decision-making center of the brain, which curbs the passionate stimuli of the amygdala and places them in the right context. When the amygdala is already in need of action, the frontal lobes still want to see that there is no need to repent [6]. According to the living systems theory, this can be compared to the activities of a group or organization, where the leader or decision-maker, like the frontal lobes, acts as a curbing and evaluating actor of various stimuli. Especially when operating in project organizations consisting of a large number of different parties, the project manager and management team have an important role to play in controlling the different aspirations of different parties in order to implement the project in the best possible way.

Motivational Systems Theory

Martin E. Ford [7] has presented the Motivational Systems Theory. In Ford’s theory, motivation is defined as the systematic regularization of three psychological functions. These three functions are: guiding goal-oriented activities (personal goals), inspiring (emotional interest processes), and regulating (personal beliefs, values). Symbolically, motivation can be represented by a mathematical formula consisting of three interactive components [7]:

Motivation is thus a unifying concept that describes the direction (in which a person is going), emotional energy and affective experience (which either supports or prevents them from moving in that direction) and the person’s expectations of whether he or she will be able to achieve his or her goal. Motivation does not primarily mean any of these three processes, but is a concept that emerges as the combined effect of all three components. [7]

Personal goals are thoughts about what a person wants to achieve or avoid achieving. Goals have two basic characteristics: they describe the desired (or avoidable) results and guide the other components of the person in achieving (or avoiding) those results. Goals thus lead to regularities in motivation by defining their content and direction. A person’s behavior is usually guided simultaneously by several different goals. The most motivating tasks are those where it is possible to achieve several different goals at the same time. [7]

Emotions are organized functional models consisting of three components: an affective (a general part of subjective feeling of emotion), a physiological (model that supports biological processing), and a transactional (model of motor and communicative functions that facilitate the achievement of goals) component. People are able to cope with varying situations with their emotions, as they provide the person with evaluative information about his or her interaction with the environment and support the achievement of the desired results. [7]

Personal beliefs are evaluative thoughts that compare desired and expected results with each other. Personal beliefs related to a particular goal are irrelevant if that goal is worthless to the individual. There are two types of personal beliefs: ability beliefs (whether the person in question has the necessary skills to achieve the desired goal) and background beliefs (whether the person’s environment contributes to achieving the goal). Personal beliefs play a particularly crucial role in situations where goals are challenging but achievable. [7]

Effective Action

Four basic conditions apply to effective action in any behavioral situation (Ford 1992, p. 69):

1. The person must have the necessary motivation to start and continue the activity until the goal is achieved.

2. The person must have the necessary skills to produce the desired results.

3. The person's biological structure and function must be able to support the functioning of the motivational and skill components.

4. The person should have a responsive environment that helps (or at least does not unduly hinder) progress toward the goal.

Effective action thus requires a motivated and skilled person whose biological and behavioral abilities support relevant situations of interaction with the responsive environment. If any of these components is missing or insufficient, potential achievements are limited and competence development is hampered. The processes that affect a person's effective functioning can be described using the following mathematical formula [7]:

In any business, it is very important that the people who work are motivated and able to do their job. Working methods form part of the environment in which the people operate, and it is therefore important that the methods support people's activities and thus contribute to the creation of a responsive environment. A person who feels that the methods used are impractical cannot achieve the best possible outcome and thus also improve the performance of the organization.

Optimal Responsive Environment

Ford [7] has defined four functional factors that should be included in an optimal responsive environment:

1. The environment must be in harmony with the individual's personal goals (valued outcomes).

2. The environment must be compatible with the person's biological, transactional and cognitive abilities.

3. The environment shall have the material and information resources necessary to achieve the goal.

4. The environment must provide an emotional atmosphere that supports and facilitates effective action.

Based on the four factors presented by Ford, the contribution of any environmental factor to efficient operation can be assessed. This means e.g. an assessment of working methods in terms of how they contribute to the existence of these four factors in the operating environment.

References

[1] von Wright, G.H. 1980. Freedom and Determination. Acta Philosophica Fennica. Vol. 31, Issue 1. Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing Company.

[2] Wilson, G.M. 1980. The Intentionality of Human Action. Acta Philosophica Fennica. Vol. 31, Issues 2-3. Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing Company.

[3] Ruohotie, P. 1998. Motivaatio, tahto ja oppiminen. Helsinki, Oy Edita Ab.

[4] Juuti, P. Organisaatiok?ytt?ytyminen: Johtamisen ja organisaation toiminnan perusteet. Kolmas painos. Helsinki, Kustannusosakeyhti? Otava.

[5] McDaniel, C. Jr., Gates, R. 1996. Contemporary Marketing Research. 3rd Edition. St. Paul, West Publishing Company.

[6] Goleman, D. 1999. Tunne?ly ty?el?m?ss?. Alkuper?isteoksesta Working with Emotional Intelligence suomentanut Kankaanp??, J. Keuruu, Otavan kirjapaino Oy.

[7] Ford, M.E. 1992. Motivating Humans: Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs. Newbury Park, SAGE Publications Ltd