THE SEM IS OVER !

I can't believe the semester is over... how many Saturdays are there in a sem? On the last day of class, looking back, I guess I learned something after all.

Sony Q's words: "Fall in love with a particular perspective" made a lot more sense.

Here are some photos of the DM 201 Class. See you next sem!

MGT 231 : The Youth in Development Organizations

I recently took this "Should you quit your job?" and this came out: I don't want to follow the advice because I can still see some hope... Upon taking this quiz I realized that it would be nice to share with you also some excerpts from my paper on "The Youth in Development Organizations: A Study on the Motivations of the Youth in Ayala Foundation" (Special thanks to Teacher Candice for the supplementary studies!)

Your Job Dissatisfaction Level is 48%

Well, you don't have the worst job in the world, but it's not great. And don't worry, you're not the problem - your company is. Start looking around for another job, even if you're not totally fed up. Because in time, you're going to be dying to quit!

Should You Quit Your Job?

INTRODUCTION

I first thought of writing about how the tardiness and overtime policies at work affected the quality of outputs. Then, I realized, there is nothing much one can do about policies – it was something there that we had to live with. I wanted something that was closer to my heart and something that I myself have experienced or currently going through.

In 2005, the Association of Foundations released a book called, “Philippine NGOs in the 21st Century: Searching for Renewed Relevance” where they stated that one of the factors that are making NGOs lose its luster was because, “the youth are no longer interested in development work”. The book further expanded on how, in recent years, the youth has lost its idealism for development work and saw NGO employment as “just a job” that can provide a salary, as in employees in other for-profit institutions.

My job in Ayala Foundation involves varying levels of interaction with employees, especially with the staff of the Center for Social Development. Interaction is not limited to business transactions – and meaningful conversations usually carry on over lunch, coffee breaks and after office chats. From these everyday interactions, I can say that although there are hints of disillusionment and discouragement – the young people that I am working with have not yet lost their passion for helping people. Indeed, they are in this industry not for the extrinsic rewards, but for the nobler goal of helping others.

However, it is somewhat alarming that many people are being very vocal about wanting to look for other opportunities in other organizations. Some attribute it to the lack of a competitive salary, but a whole lot more blame the lack of empowerment up to limited opportunities for personal growth and development I know that my colleagues at Ayala Foundation have brilliant minds and ideas that are waiting to be harnessed. It is disappointing to know that lack of motivation dampens the passion and idealism of the youth working for Ayala Foundation. Further exploring the different motivations of the youth in AFI may be able to address the disappointments and may lead to improved job satisfaction, and eventually productivity.

Reflections

It did not come as a surprise that “Intrinsic factors” ranked number one in the overall tally of motivators, considering that the respondents were development workers and CHOSE to work for a development oriented organization rather than a corporate institution which can offer higher pay. Referring to Maslow’s theory, perhaps we can conclude at this point, that employees of AFI are primarily seeking “self-actualization” needs.

Although it cannot be deduced from the survey tool whether employees use their salaries and rewards for basic needs or luxury items, it can be said that “Rewards” play a very big role in motivating employees. The almost equal importance that employees give to “Intrinsic” / self-actualizing factors to physiological needs (salary used to meet basic needs) and the order of ranking support another theory of motivation by Alderfer. The ERG theory states that all needs can influence behavior at any one time.

A comparison of these results to Maslow's need-hierarchy theory provides some interesting insights the motivation of AFI employees. The number one ranked motivator, nature of work, is a self-actualizing factor. The number two ranked motivator, rewards, is a physiological factor. The number three ranked motivator, people/interpersonal relationships, is an esteem factor. The number four ranked motivator, organization as a whole, is a safety factor. Therefore, according to Maslow (1943), simply put, if managers wish to address the most important motivational factor of the foundations' employees, nature of work, physiological, safety, social, and esteem factors must first be satisfied. If managers wish to address the second most important motivational factor of the foundation’s employees, rewards, increased pay would suffice. Contrary to what Maslow's theory suggests, the range of motivational factors are mixed in this study. Maslow's conclusions that lower level motivational factors must be met before ascending to the next level were not confirmed by the results of this study.

Even if “Rewards” ranked second, it would not be easy for management to address this need by just increasing the wages of the employees. External factors such as the economic crisis, and the presence of other pending financial needs of the foundation, an increase in the salary may be difficult to provide. Therefore, management must strive to provide for the primary self-actualization needs of the employees and think of other ways to provide non-monetary rewards, and at the same time, sustain the passion and interest of the employees in their work.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

From a different perspective, it is interesting to note that the collective responses of employees aged 20-30 ranked Intrinsic motivators first, versus those from the 31-50 age bracket who collectively ranked Rewards number one. These results show the difference of priorities from people coming from different age groups.
For the young ones, “Rewards” was ranked fourth priority – considered less important than Personal Relationships and Organizational goals which ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Last on the list was “External factors”.
Based on observation and everyday interaction, the young people in Ayala Foundation is an idealistic and eager bunch. Everyone is eager to put their best foot forward and apply the skills and talents that they have acquired throughout the years towards helping the underprivileged. Given this trait among the employees, the prioritization of “Intrisic” rewards was to be expected.

Candice Cabutihan, 26 years old, and a Music and Arts teacher at CENTEX shares, “In doing my job for the foundation, I value the non-financial rewards most. I find myself fulfilled while working for the underprivileged, and it also helps that I am working with a great team.”

“Personal Relationships” play a big part in motivating the young people of AFI. Development projects require a high level of interactions and teamwork in order for programs to succeed. Also, at this stage in their career, young people seek attention and approval from their peers, and this is necessary for their personality’s further development. The absence of good relationships among colleagues is also considered a valid reason for a person at this age to resign from his or her job.

Third in the priority list were “Organizational factors” – considering that this was ranked as more important than financial/ material rewards, show that these young people are not apathetic about their jobs’ primary goals. So far, these results show that remuneration was not on their top priority when they chose their job.

“Rewards” as the 4th motivating factor can be attributed to the fact that most of the young employees are still unmarried and do not have families to support. Majority lives with their parents and still do not see the need for much financial rewards. Again, based on the results, it can be seen that the young people value their love for their work (and the rewards gathered from self-fulfillment) rather than material rewards.

Lastly, the job hours and working environment came as the least important motivating factor. AFI offers wonderful working conditions (spacious offices, adequate lighting and air-conditioning) so perhaps employees saw this as an “everyday thing” and do not give much value to it. But based on the frequency of “unpaid” overtime rendered by the younger members of the staff, it can be seen that the level of comfort can be overlooked as long as their jobs are done. Dedication and passion is necessary in this type of work.

The results for the survey among the employees aged 31-50 supported Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory. Most respondents claim to rank “Rewards” as number one because they have families to support. However, most of them consider “Intrinsic factors” as something that is equally important to them. According to Mario Deriquito, 44 years old, and Director for the Center for Social Development, “Financial rewards are important, of course, because I have a family to support. These things help, of course, but they are not the main source of motivation for me, considering that I can also find these in other jobs.”

People and relationships and organizational factors ranked 3rd and 4th, respectively. Whereas “External” factors such as job hours and working conditions ranked last , as in the ranking of those in the younger age bracket. This shows the attitude of the development worker, who puts accomplishment of tasks ahead of personal comfort.

The results of this informal study show that indeed, employee motivation varies from age to age. Overall, it can be said that AFI employees value the nature of their work, growth enhancement, achievement, and fulfillment and level of responsibility. This was further reflected on their answers to the question, “What can AFI management do to motivate you to be more satisfied and content with your job?” where majority of the answers centered on better communication and interaction, personal and professional growth and the need to be heard.

However, it is encouraging that AFI employees are motivated enough to seek ways on how to further improve their job performances by listing meaningful items under the question, How can you as a AFI employee contribute to help AFI as a whole?
It is interesting to note that human beings have different views about their jobs, based on their own situations and experiences. It is actually very interesting to observe how people perceive their work life as well as their motives especially when they are in an organization. The ranked importance of motivational factors of employees at the foundation will provide useful information for the foundations’ human resource department as well as the employees.

MOTIVATING THE YOUTH

The survey results greatly emphasized the importance of Intrinsic factors among the youth by the wide gap between this factor and material rewards as motivators. This fact alone shows that it takes a lot more than adequate pay and a nice office to harness their passion and dedication.

The fast expansion of AFI (taking on new projects and responsibilities) and the growing employee population have led management to focus on deadlines, timeframes and tasks being done right away rather than giving room for interactive and participatory discussions and conducive learning conditions. “Urgent” projects and purely administrative tasks are slowly eating up the idealism of the youth. The managerial style of some managers prevents creative thinking and grabs employees’ sense of contribution to the company.

This situation in AFI poses a threat to the main motivating factor for the youth: employees are motivated because of the nature of their work, growth enhancement to higher level tasks, sense of achievement, self-fulfillment, and level of responsibility.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Motivation for better performance depends on job satisfaction, achievement, recognition, and professional growth (Boyett and Boyett, 2000). Providing a positive motivational work environment is a challenging managerial activity. Therefore, managers must understand associates and their professional needs.
Given that the people from different age brackets showed differences in their choices of motivation, it is recommended that HR or the management consider the youth’s need for intrinsic rewards. Among those identified intrinsic needs were opportunities for growth, interaction with co-employees, better communication channels, work-life balance, creative expression and participatory decision-making.

Resource material taken from the website : www.employeesatisfaction.com, identifies motivators of employees and suggests specific actions to be taken by management.

1. Opportunity
Employees are more satisfied when they have challenging opportunities at work. This includes chances to participate in interesting projects, jobs with a satisfying degree of challenge and opportunities for increased responsibility. Important: this is not simply "promotional opportunity." As organizations have become flatter, promotions can be rare. People have found challenge through projects, team leadership, special assignments-as well as promotions.
Recommended actions :
Promote from within when possible
Reward promising employees with roles on interesting projects
Divide jobs into levels of increasing leadership and responsibility.

2. Stress
When negative stress is continuously high, job satisfaction is low. Jobs are more stressful if they interfere with employees' personal lives or are a continuing source of worry or concern.
Recommended actions :
Promote a balance of work and personal lives. Make sure that senior managers model this behavior.
Distribute work evenly (fairly) within workteams.
Review work procedures to remove unnecessary "red tape" or bureaucracy.
Manage the number of interruptions employees have to endure while trying to do their jobs.
Some organizations utilize exercise or "fun" breaks at work.

3. Leadership
Employees are more satisfied when their managers are good leaders. This includes motivating employees to do a good job, striving for excellence or just taking action. Recommended Actions :
Make sure managers are well trained. Leadership combines attitudes and behavior. It can be learned.
People respond to managers that they can trust and who inspire them to achieve meaningful goals.

4. Work Standards
Employees are more satisfied when their entire workgroup takes pride in the quality of its work.
Recommended Actions :
Encourage communication between employees and customers. Quality gains importance when employees see its impact on customers
Develop meaningful measures of quality. Celebrate achievements in quality.

5. Fair Rewards
Employees are more satisfied when they feel they are rewarded fairly for the work they do. Consider employee responsibilities, the effort they have put forth, the work they have done well and the demands of their jobs.
Recommended actions :
· Make sure rewards are for genuine contributions to the organization.
· Be consistent in your reward policies.
· If your wages are competitive, make sure employees know this
· Rewards can include a variety of benefits and perks other than money.
As an added benefit, employees who are rewarded fairly, experience less stress.

6. Adequate Authority
Employees are more satisfied when they have adequate freedom and authority to do their jobs.
Recommended actions : (when reasonable)
§ Let employees make decisions.
§ Allow employees to have input on decisions that will affect them.
§ Establish work goals but let employees determine how they will achieve those goals. Later reviews may identify innovative "best practices."
§ Ask, "If there were just one or two decisions that you could make, which ones would make the biggest difference in your job?

It is best also to continue this study and venture into a more thorough research about employee motivation that would lead to increased job satisfaction and productivity. Time constraints prevented a more thorough analysis of the gathered data. This informal study may be a starting point from where the HR department can base their planned research. Scope should be increased to include more respondents from different age groups, and perhaps, from different companies.

"Chinie's Hero"

Chinie Canivel is a Management Engineering graduate at the Ateneo. She wrote this as an inspirational address for other young leaders in 2004. I just thought it would be nice to share this with all of you. Chinie is also an alumni of the Ayala Young Leaders Congress (Batch 2004)

I am sure you all expect me to give some account of my leadership role in my school, of my past experiences as a student leader, or perhaps, anecdotes about my own encounters of challenges and opportunities. But this story is not about me. This story is about a hero. My hero.

Heroes come in different forms. Many people think "big and strong" when they hear the word "hero". Others think of sagely intellectuals who write inspiring novels and ideologies, or kindly old men and women who dedicate their lives to the poor. My hero came in the form of a baby - born on June 22, 1997 with a hole in his heart and water in his lungs. He was kept in an incubator in the intensive care unit and was only brought home after a month. Doctors diagnosed him with Down's Syndrome, a condition that would hinder him from ever developing at a normal child's rate, both physically and intellectually.

This baby was a fighter. From the very first day he was born, life was a struggle for him. His condition was critical and his health was touch and go. And so he was named Emilio Emmanuel, so that, true to his name, God may be with him. Mio, as he was fondly called, pulled through his first few months, fighting the instability of his health with a strength one would never suspect from a one-month old baby. Though physically, he was weak, his will was full of fortitude and strength.

Mio's first few months were not the last of his challenges. Because of his condition, he had to undergo therapy for strengthening his weak physique. At the young age of two, doctors noticed his low blood count and confirmed that he had anemia. Just a few months later, his condition progressed, and he was diagnosed with cancer of the blood - leukemia, a sickness common to children with Down's Syndrome.

Quite a load to bear for a child of two. Every other week was spent in the hospital for blood transfusions and chemotherapy sessions, and days out of the hospital meant going to the doctor's for check ups. But Emilio, at a young age, displayed such grace in his situation. Even from a hospital bed, he would greet all his visitors with a cheerful laugh and a clap of his hands. Because of his condition, he hadn't yet learned how to talk or walk, but the sparkle in his eye and his infectious laughter was enough to lift anyone's spirit. He was a loving little boy, playful and optimistic and always willing to share a smile. Mio would eagerly hug his sisters and brother when they arrived at the hospital and when he was home, he would roll around his bed laughing at nothing in particular. Through all the pain of therapy, Mio kept his head high and his smile on his face.

Leukemia took its toll on Mio. Soon after his third birthday, Emilio passed away. Till the very end, he was an astounding example of strength. He fought his illness and faced his challenges like a hero. He was a gift to his family -- our family. He was my brother.

Mio has been my inspiration. He taught me that one doesn't have to be powerful to be strong. I continue to find it amazing that so many of life's valuable lessons, I learned from a child - a baby - one who couldn't speak, or even walk. Through his times of tribulation, all one received from him was a loving smile. In facing his hardships and all the trials that life handed him, Mio was a pillar of courage. He is one of the best people I have ever met.

I believe we all go through our challenges for a reason. Mio's story is one for me to share, so that you too may be inspired by his life and find the driving force in your own. I hope that you remember this lesson that my brother taught me: dare to dream big, but do not forget the little things along the way. Aim high, aspire to reach your ultimate goals. But do not forget to thank those who helped you along the way, and to celebrate small victories.

Remember that we each have our gifts. No matter what life gives you, you choose what to make of it. You can fight your way through the hardest times, if you keep in mind that you can make it through. My brother was met with so many challenges in his three years here, but he showed me that you fight your fights from within. In his three years he made me believe that miracles do exist in this world.

You all already have so much to be proud of. So I hope that each of you goes out to create your own miracles. In your journey, may you keep looking out for that big dream, that ultimate goal, and try your hardest in achieving it. But do not forget to look over your shoulder sometimes, so that you may also see how much you have accomplished. There are times when we each get too engrossed with how much we have yet to achieve, that we forget how far we have already come.
And most especially, remember to meet all your challenges with a smile. Times will be trying, and I cannot guarantee that you will be able to get all that you want. But even if times may get tough, we all already have so much to be thankful for. Being able to stay optimistic and strong in the face of difficulty is one of the most admirable qualities that one can find in a leader.
I wish you luck in all your endeavors, and hope that you may also find your Emilios, your God-be-with-you's. As leaders, it is not in the end of the journey that you find your reward. It is in the process of your being a leader - your process of learning, adapting, inspiring. So enjoy your journey. Dream big, celebrate your victories, be thankful for what you have, and keep smiling. This is only one more meaningful step in what I am sure will be a lifetime of inspiring experiences. Thank you, and good luck to all of you.

Isn't it wonderful that in the middle of everything confusing, we find young people like Chinie who are inspired by others, and continue to inspire others as well? Talk about paying it forward! How about you? Who is your hero?

Yes, there are still a lot of things we have to remain hopeful for. For a dose of good news, (or if you want to continuously fire up your "love for country" check out this wonderful discovery: http://goodnewspilipinas.com/index.html

for a web-published version of Chinie's article (with photos of Chinie, Mio, and their family) please click on this entry's title.

Just Wanted To ...

... share some photos (which explains why I was gone from class :-)

Last Feb 14-17 was the 8th Ayala Young Leaders Congress (AYLC) held at the San Miguel Corporation - Management Training Center. The AYLC is an annual leadership summit that brings together 70 or so of the country's top young leaders in a congress which promotes servant-leadership. This year's theme was "Harnessing People Power for Development" and had Mar Roxas as the keynote speaker.

My participation in the Congress has waned throughout the years, but it is worth mentioning that my first real job in Ayala Foundation was as Project Assistant for the AYLC, which I was directly involved in for two years. I then became a Development Associate (handling some AYLC stuff plus Volunteerism and other small projects), the I actually RESIGNED for two months - then came back as Executive Assistant to the Director of the Center for Social Development (Mr. Mario A Deriquito, as seen in the pic..)

This year, I was able to help out during the in-gress (Feb 11) and assisted the Secretariat in putting together and writing the AYLC Planning Tool Kit - (A Planning Tool Kit for Young Leaders) .

Here are some photos during this year's Congress...

Dr. Onofre Pagsanghan "Pagsi" was one of the speakers, he shared about his experiences as a High School teacher at the Ateneo - and how he'll never trade the job for anything else. One of the most inspiring speeches I've heard in years.

Posing with Mr. Guillermo "Bill" Luz - Executive Director of the Makati Business Club

.... with the Luz Brothers (again, Mr Bill Luz and DepEd USec Mike Luz ) ...

Climbing the high wall was one of the outdoor challenges that everyone had to go through. Note that the middle person is blindfolded!

MGT 231: Organizational Determinants of Behavior

My apologies to the class and to my groupmates Laarni, Jerlyn, Christian and Tere for not being present for the 2nd half of our report.

I uploaded the consolidated presentation (thanks, Christian, for compiling these) to the Net, available for download.

CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD GROUP 3's PRESENTATION
(5.56 MB Powerpoint Presentation)

Presentation Outline:

Organizational Determinants of Behavior in Organizations
Focus on Tasks and Rewards as Determinants

•Goal Setting and Performance reported by Christian
•Behavior Modification Theory reported by Tere
•Rewarding Effective Performance - I did this, I'll be posting the Manila Water case soon... I think even non-MGT 231 can learn or be inspired from it
•Morale and Performance reported by Laarni and Jerlyn

QUIZ on March 5 :-) Good Luck and Enjoy!