Power and Politics at Work Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Power and Politics at Work - Literature review Example As the paper outlines, employee motivation is indeed one of the major aspects of modern business. But this could be vitiated by several aspects like harassment and rough treatment in the work place. In their article entitled Human Resource Development Review- Towards a theoretical model of performance inhibiting work place dynamics, Brian A. Altman and Mesut Akbere argue and analyze that many situations could arise that could best be termed as â€Å"performance inhibiting work place dynamics.† Therefore it becomes very important that employees need to be positive minded and not cynical or caustic about the work or any other related matter. In the second article, its authors, James B. Avey, Tara S. Wernsing and Fred Luthans argue that while negative minded situations do present itself in business enterprises, at the end of the day it is the positive mindedness attitude of the employees that could help overcome difficult situations and bring about beneficial â€Å"organizationa l change.† (Avey., Wernsing & Luthans, second article). For instance, many may think in terms of downsizing in a negative sense but it could also increase efficiencies and streamline operations in a positive way. In the next article, its authors argue about the pros and cons of the merit payment schemes in the context of nonprofit organizations. The authors argue that under conventional methods, entitlements to incentives were taken for granted and not directly related to performance, but the new concept is that even in organizations requiring workforce to consider altruistic motives while performing, it is often the better performers who gain more merit payments rather than the poorer performers. However, the fairness of the schemes often determines its effectiveness and negative performance rating could serve to lower productivity and performance since if the â€Å" the organization does not reward their performance, but instead responds unfavorably to it by appraising perf ormance unfairly, an employee will perceive inequity.† (Cirka., & Deckop, Third article). That being said, now the argument moves from individual-based performance and motivational strategies to group based ones. In the next  article, the authors argue that team efficacy sometimes becomes more important than self-efficacy and thus while providing a greater degree of flexibility and leeway to operations, especially customer servicing, service teams are able to deliver better results, although they may be constrained about the optimum performance of each team constituent member. Thus â€Å"self-managing teams† are indeed very crucial in the overall organization performance index and are greatly valued, despite the argument that gaining optimum levels of performance from all members may be difficult propositions. (Royter., Wetzels., & Jong, Fourth article)