Group membership and the worker motivation scale

Date

1988-05

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

The Worker Motivation Scale (WMS) was used to measure individual motivations in groups (Johnson, McDonald, and George 1984). The V7MS provided three subscale scores for each individual; these were Task Motivation (TM), Prominence Motivation (PM) and Affiliation Motivation (AM). The three types of groups studied were: undergraduate task performance groups, undergraduate social interactive groups and law school task groups. The present experiment was designed to test the thesis that individual differences in motivation influence choice of group membership. It was hypothesized but refuted, that there would be a relationship between type of group and the subscales of the V7MS. It was also hypothesized, and some support was shown, for there being a relationship between the leaders of groups (task versus social) and the student ratings on VJMS constructs. Elected leaders of social groups were rated by group member more highly on AM than on TM or PM.

Task and social group scores were very close to the normative scores on the WMS. The law school group scores were significantly lower on TM and on AM than task, social, and the normative scores.

This thesis inspires further research in the study of students in various graduate programs. Graduate students could be measured with the WMS to see if their individual differences in motivation are different from the established norms which are based on undergraduate data.

Description

Keywords

Small groups, Motivation (Psychology), Individuality, Leadership

Citation