APPENDIX 4B MOTIVATION INSTRUMENT

Of the three choices given, select the one that most closely approximates your own approach to each situation.

1. Assume that you are working on a project. You are meeting with the project manager, who is going to give you some feedback on your work thus far. Ideally, you would prefer that this feedback reflect how:

   1. Cooperative or helpful you are

   2. Your work contributed to project success

   3. Your performance on assigned tasks was received in terms of its quality

2. On a project, do you tend to have a:

   1. Tendency to take risks, believing that risks typically are opportunities

   2. Moderate tolerance for risks, taking only calculated risks

   3. Low tolerance for risk, avoiding risks if possible

3. Assume that you are working on a project and have a conflict with another team member over a technical issue. In this situation, do you typically resolve the conflict through a:

   1. Competing or win “lose type of approach

   2. Collaborating or win “win type of approach

   3. Compromising or giving in for the short term type of approach

4. Do you prefer to work on a project performing roles that involve:

   1. Interdependent tasks in which you often work with other team members

   2. Tasks for which you are primarily responsible for the outcome, from beginning to end

   3. Interactions with stakeholders both internal and external to the project

5. Assume that you are in a meeting with your project team, and it is time for the team to make a decision. In this situation, do you tend to:

   1. Take the lead and strive to bring the issue to closure

   2. Provide technical input to the decision but not feel that you should be responsible for making the final decision

   3. Work to make sure that everyone involved has an opportunity to contribute their ideas and concerns

6. There are many ways to receive approval for the work that is done on projects. On your work, would you prefer to receive approval from:

   1. Subject matter experts

   2. Project sponsors and external stakeholders

   3. Team members

7. Assume that you are working on a project, and several tasks have been assigned to you as your primary responsibility. Do you:

   1. Often try to show people, regardless of whether they are peers or superiors, a better way to complete the work

   2. If requested , help team members complete their work even if you realize this may delay completion of your own assigned tasks

   3. Tend to think about how to accomplish something significant and difficult even if it is outside your own assigned tasks and responsibilities

8. During your project kickoff meeting, assume that your team prepared a team charter and set team norms as to how work is to be done and how conflicts and issues are to be resolved. Do you then tend to:

   1. Follow the group norms explicitly

   2. Experiment with new approaches and then inform the team of a better way to get things done

   3. Follow your own plan and approach to complete your assigned tasks even if they differ from the group's norms

9. In setting goals, do you tend to:

   1. Favor goals that are attainable (e.g., neither too high nor too low)

   2. Set hard personal, but attainable, and challenging goals

   3. Clarify the team's goals in such a manner that they represent your own goals and then persuade others to work toward these goals

10. Assume that you are meeting your fellow project team members for the first time. At this point, do you typically:

    1. Trust that because they have been assigned to the project they will complete their assigned tasks on schedule and according to plan

    2. Expect others to devote as much time to each task as you do

    3. Talk about past projects or tasks in which you were successful and suggest that people follow these approaches

11. When working on a project, are you interested in:

    1. Participating in as many decisions as possible that affect the project even if the decisions involve issues that are outside of your directly assigned tasks

    2. Working primarily on the tasks that are your assigned responsibility, as they are ones over which you have the greatest control

    3. Working primarily to encourage teamwork and cooperation among team members

12. Assume that you have had a disagreement with another team member over a technical issue for a task that is one of your assignments. In this situation do you:

    1. Try to resist reacting defensively to your teammate's concerns and keep an open mind

    2. Tend to view this team member in a competitive way

    3. Typically react positively to the information about your work, even if it is somewhat negative

13. On a project, in terms of rewards and recognition, do you:

    1. Feel rewards are as essential as the accomplishment of the work itself

    2. Focus primarily on your own personal achievement rather than the overall rewards of project success

    3. Want to be recognized as the person who makes the greatest overall contribution to the project's success

14. When assigned to a project team, do you feel frustrated more by the:

    1. Tasks that remain to be completed

    2. Inability to make friendly and long- lasting relationships with team members

    3. Lack of opportunities to meet and interact with internal and external stakeholders

15. In a team meeting, do you view your role primarily to be one of:

    1. Soliciting thoughts, opinions , feedback, and ideas from other team members

    2. Stating complex information, thoughts, and ideas simply, clearly, and concisely

    3. Taking the initiative to identify and resolve any work- related problems that need to be solved

16. In order to complete your assigned tasks as efficiently as possible, do you:

    1. Follow the overall project schedule as closely as possible

    2. Prepare your own detailed schedule for your assigned tasks, striving to complete your tasks ahead of schedule

    3. Focus first on completing work due today and in the near term and then focus on work to be done in the future

17. If you could select a project to work on, would you prefer to work on one that was authorized because of a:

    1. Technological advance

    2. Social need

    3. Customer request

18. If you do not believe that you are contributing to the work to be done by your project team or if you do not believe that your work is valued, then:

    1. Overall, your productivity tends to decrease

    2. You will spend a lot of time thinking about how you should be doing your assigned tasks in order to improve your results

    3. You will approach your team members and clearly express your concern and request information from them that will enable you to fulfill your assigned responsibilities

19. If you are making a presentation to your customers, do you tend to:

    1. Express your ideas in a way that persuades others to accept your points of view

    2. Explain your work as clearly and succinctly as possible

    3. Restate and clarify important points and questions

20. If a team member approaches you and asks you for some assistance, such as mentoring or training, do you tend to:

    1. Drop your own assigned tasks to come to the aid of your team member

    2. Openly volunteer such services early on in a project

    3. Explain that you are pleased to help once your own tasks are completed

21. Assume that you are working on a project. Are your own personal goals ones that are:

    1. Carefully measured so that they can be accomplished

    2. In line with those of the project team

    3. In line with the organization's strategic goals

22. Unfortunately, on your current assignment, you just cannot seem to master the technical intricacies of the work involved. Whatever you do does not seem to work. If you are in such as situation, do you:

    1. Ask team members for assistance

    2. Simply try harder

    3. Ask to be reassigned to a task to which you are sure you can make a contribution and achieve recognition

23. In receiving feedback, are you most interested in knowing how:

    1. Well you are doing on your assigned tasks

    2. Much your team members like and value your contributions

    3. Your work is viewed by the project sponsor and other internal and external stakeholders

24. Assume that two of your team members only can seem to agree to disagree . They have asked you to help them resolve a current conflict. In this situation, do you tend to:

    1. View the conflict in terms of its technical issues and point out why each person's opinions may not be correct

    2. Work with the team members collaboratively and help them resolve the conflict, even if it means that the overall working relationships that the team has established may need to be changed as a result

    3. Work with the team following a confrontational-type approach to conflict resolution that fosters a forthright discussion of the issues at hand

25. Assume that you are working for a company that has a Project Management Center of Excellence. It has developed a project management methodology that is to be followed on all projects in your company. You are using it on your current project. In this situation, are you typically:

    1. Not very concerned about the methodology that is to be used, focusing instead on your own tasks that are your responsibility

    2. Interested in following the methodology, as you feel it is essential to achieve the project's goals and objectives

    3. Interested in the project management methodology only if you believe you can significantly enhance it and be recognized for your contributions in this regard

26. When working on a project team, do you experience a sense of frustration if you:

    1. Cannot take charge

    2. Feel that your efforts to help other team members are rebuffed

    3. Cannot complete your assigned tasks to your expected level of quality

27. Do you feel that, in general, team decisions should be based on:

    1. Consensus among the team members

    2. The goals and objectives of the project and the organization

    3. The available technical information supporting the decision

28. You are most pleased as a project team member when you perceive that:

    1. Your ideas and approach to the task at hand are the correct ones to pursue

    2. Your leadership in a difficult and important situation with project stakeholders has proven to be effective

    3. Your efforts to assist others in completing their assigned tasks are viewed as instrumental to their success

29. Typically, in working on a project, do you tend to:

    1. Want to help others even to the degree that you may get in their way

    2. Want to be independent and often rebuff the attempts of others to assist you

    3. Act in a way so you can direct others and exert your authority over them

30. If you are having a conflict on a technical issue with people on your team who you respect for their technical expertise, do you:

    1. Work to maintain harmony rather than asserting your own point of view

    2. Strive to dominate regardless of their opinions and feelings

    3. Strive to keep your options open and acknowledge their feedback in a constructive way

31. If something goes wrong on a project, do you believe it is primarily due to:

    1. Lack of dedication and hard work

    2. Lack of teamwork

    3. The failure of others to acknowledge your approach or point of view

32. Ideally, you feel best about your work on a project team when you:

    1. Believe your work has resulted in a technical breakthrough or innovation that otherwise would not have occurred

    2. Have been able to provide leadership to others on the project and to guide them through some difficult moments during the project

    3. Have been able to mentor some other team members in their work to enable them to complete their work on the project in a successful way

33. Assume you are working on a project team. During the kickoff meeting, are you more interested in:

    1. Determining what you need to do to accomplish your assigned tasks

    2. Getting to meet and know the other team members

    3. Seeing how this project fits in with the overall organizational strategic goals

34. When you are working on a project team and it appears that the project is in trouble in terms of meeting its planned schedule or it may exceed its budget, do you tend to work:

    1. With the team to redefine the project's goals and objectives

    2. With the team to suggest that it meet and mutually agree on better ways to work together

    3. Harder yourself to see if you can get the project back on track

35. Assume that your team is meeting to discuss the status of the project and the upcoming milestones. During a team meeting, do you tend to primarily:

    1. Work to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate in the meeting, often drawing out those people who may tend not to speak up

    2. Provide information about the technical issues affecting the project

    3. Focus the team on the goals and objectives of the project and on what must be done to ensure overall project success

36. When working on a project team, would you prefer that your team members perceive that you are the person who:

    1. Can best provide leadership if it is a self-directed team

    2. Will want to support the other team members and provide assistance whenever requested

    3. Is respected for your technical abilities and your desire to meet the project's performance requirements

37. Recognizing that decisions made by the team will tend to be more complete than a decision made by one team member alone, do you strive during team problem solving and decision making to:

    1. Provide technical data to assist in the decision-making process

    2. Make sure the atmosphere is a cooperative one in which everyone can freely participate and each person's contributions are valued

    3. Focus the team on the objectives at hand and on the specific issues to be resolved

38. The ideal role for you to assume on a team is one in which you are:

    1. Perceived as being assertive and forceful in helping the team meet the project's goals and objectives

    2. Considered the technical expert and also are viewed as consistently completing your work as assigned

    3. The person that others feel is thoughtful and who team members tend to contact whenever they might have a personal problem

39. If you have a disagreement with another team member on a technical issue, do you tend to:

    1. Be open-minded throughout the disagreement, working to find an answer that represents a middle ground between the two positions

    2. Look objectively at the data the other person presents in order to understand his or her point of view

    3. Consider the opposite view but push for your solution to the problem

40. Assume that you are working on a project team. The team has established some ground rules to follow in terms of the working relationships among the team members. Three of the team members now feel that the approach that is used to ensure participation at team meetings is not working. They are concerned that one person tends to totally dominate the discussions, and they believe that their ideas and concerns are not being addressed. Basically, you do not feel this is a major issue on your team, but they just asked you for your view of the situation. Do you:

    1. Suggest a way to ensure that everyone participates with a quickfix to the problem at hand

    2. Tell them that you do not really perceive this to be a problem and try to refocus them on the technical tasks that need to be completed

    3. Make a strong case for your position that the group process is working well and does not require a change at this time

41. If you are in a meeting with a group of project stakeholders and if there is a heated discussion about a possible change in scope to the project, do you tend to:

    1. Organize your thoughts logically and make a strong case for your position

    2. Be sensitive to the issues the other project stakeholders raise and, as a result, not take a firm stand

    3. Try to gain the trust of the stakeholders and then lead the group in merging their perspectives

42. Assume that your project has the opportunity to be the first in your company to use new technology in its work. The alternative is to remain with the current approach, which has been used successfully on many projects in the past. If the new technology is selected, it may be possible to complete the project in half the time. However, if it doesn't work, it is estimated that the schedule will slip, and the project will not be completed on time; in fact, there probably will be a three-month delay. In this situation, would you:

    1. Favor using the new technology

    2. Favor using the new technology in parallel with the current approach to make sure it can be employed without serious problems

    3. Favor using the current approach, which has been successful on so many projects in the past

43. When working on a project team, would you prefer to be able to:

    1. Have little external structure except to know the general goals and objectives for the project and when tasks need to be completed to keep on schedule

    2. Have the opportunity to establish a defined structure for the team's work and work to encourage team members to adopt it

    3. Work within a defined structure for your work, with someone available for consultation whenever desired

44. Are you interested specifically in tasks:

    1. That have high levels of responsibility characterized by challenging, varied, and integrative work

    2. That have clearly defined objectives but enable you to determine how best to accomplish them

    3. In which you believe you can succeed and afford you the opportunity to work closely with others

45. Would you prefer to be recognized for your achievements that stress your:

    1. Specific contributions to the project team and your steady performance

    2. Ability to get results

    3. Technical contributions in your field of expertise

46. When working on a project team, there are a number of administrative tasks that need to be done. If you are asked to do these tasks on a team, do you generally feel that:

    1. They are necessary to perform but not enjoyable or desirable tasks to pursue

    2. You should complete these administrative tasks in a manner that shows that you can handle them effectively and efficiently

    3. These are necessary tasks that must be done, and accordingly , you approach them in a positive way to show that you are contributing to the overall success of the team

47. If you could select the type of project to work on in your organization, would you tend to pick a project that provides an opportunity to:

    1. Work closely and interdependently with others in the company

    2. Personally contribute to the success of the organization

    3. Perform work that you feel is personally challenging

48. Are you more concerned with the:

    1. Intrinsic context of the work

    2. Technical content of the work

    3. External environment in which the work is done

49. Do you primarily value approval from:

    1. Someone who can understand and relate to the type of work that you do

    2. Your project manager or project sponsor

    3. Other project team members

50. Do you tend to identify principally with:

    1. The organization and its overall success or failure

    2. The other members of the project team

    3. Your professional peers

Interpreting the Questionnaire

Use the following grid to determine where you rank in terms of your preferred motivational approach. To calculate your total score, assign a value of 1 for each of your answers. Then, add the values that appear in each of three columns . The total numbers thus derived will give you an indication of your motivation profile.

Question	Answers
	Affiliation	Power	Achievement
1	A	B	C
2	C	A	B
3	C	B	A
4	A	C	B
5	C	A	B
6	C	B	A
7	B	A	C
8	A	B	C
9	A	C	B
10	A	C	B
11	C	A	B
12	A	B	C
13	A	C	B
14	B	C	A
15	A	C	B
16	A	C	B
17	B	C	A
18	A	C	B
19	C	A	B
20	A	B	C
21	B	C	A
22	A	C	B
23	B	C	A
24	B	C	A
25	B	C	A
26	B	A	C
27	A	B	C
28	C	B	A
29	A	C	B
30	A	B	C
31	B	C	A
32	C	B	A
33	B	C	A
34	B	A	C
35	A	C	B
36	B	A	C
37	B	C	A
38	C	A	B
39	A	C	B
40	A	C	B
41	B	C	A
42	C	A	B
43	C	B	A
44	C	A	B
45	A	B	C
46	C	B	A
47	A	B	C
48	A	C	B
49	C	B	A
50	B	A	C
TOTAL