Last week in HED 201, we briefly went over the concepts of empowerment and motivation. As stated in the powerpoint slideshow presented in class, empowerment is the ability to enable others using trust and clear instructions, while motivation is an incentive to take action in a situation. Many leaders choose not to empower others simply because they believe that a leader will have less power if they give theirs away to another individual(stated in readings) or because they are fearful that their follower may be a better leader than them. However, it is shown that empowering someone else actually helps build a better group dynamic and a better relationship between both follower and leader. Motivation, however, is different than empowerment. Motivation has three different dimensions: extrinsic rationale, relational rationale, and intrinsic rationale. These three components define reason why a person would be motivated to complete a task or to do a certain job.
For example, last week I decided to watch an episode of House,a fiction television series that shows how doctors are able to crack weird cases. In this episode, the intern, Masters, had to decide if she wished to continue working on House’s team. She soon realized that House may in fact empower her to be the doctor he would like her to be, but would not motivate her to be herself in that work environment. House thought that she would be a better doctor if she believed in lying and actually used small white lies to get the patient to say what she wanted to say. In this episode, House gave her kudos for lying, but scolded her for doing the right thing. In short, House empowered her lie, which was not motivation for Masters in any way, shape, or form. In the end, she realized she did not like this type of motivation, and moved on to become a surgeon. Being a surgeon, Masters realized, would provide her with the motivation she needed to get the work done. She would receive good remarks from her peers and society, would be able to interact with patients in a different way, and would not have to lie to them in order to do what is best for the patient. The first type of motivation, extrinsic rationale, is exemplified by Masters receiving good remarks from society. The second type of motivation, relational rationale, is shown by Masters not wanting to lie to patients to do what is best for them. And, finally, the third type of motivation, intrinsic rationale, could be perceived to be Masters wish to work with patients on a different level, simply because she wants to see more fruits of success, rather than the bittersweet taste of doing something good for the patient, even though they may necessarily not want what you are giving them. All in all, I believe that Masters made the choice to leave so hat she would be an environment that empowered and motivated her more than her previous job.
