Organizational Behaviour

Introduction

Today's global competition requires organizations to offer stimulating jobs to their employees to retain them. Stimulating by itself however may not be enough to retain employees. Employees must feel that their rewards for the work that they do is fair. Both of aspects combined together usually leads to employee motivation. Governmental organizations are often seen as fair to their employees. However, is working for these kinds of organizations stimulating? and does it lead to employees motivation? Hydro-Quebec, a governmental organization, is responsible for generating, transporting and distributing electricity across the province of Quebec. The work of some of the employees as well as their opinions will be analyzed to determine if their work is motivating. Three theories were used for the analysis: McClelland's theory of needs, House Path-Goal Theory and the Equity Theory.

Methodology

First, it was required to collect some data on the work, feelings and opinions of some employees of Hydro-Quebec. Interviews with some employees as well as the head of the health and security were conducted. The methodology was fairly simple, employees who were available and agreed as well as acquaintances were the ones interviewed. This was the fastest and most reliable way to collect data. The small size of the sample may not be representative of the population. However, the answers of the interviewees were very consistent with one another which could lead us to believe that the general feelings and opinions towards the organization are similar to the answers given.

Organization's history and mission

In 1944, Adélard Godbout and the Liberal Party of Quebec passed the Hydro-Quebec Act. This law was implemented to stop the oligopoly lead by the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Consolidated and the Shawinigan Water Power in the energy sector. The society is responsible for generating, transporting and distributing electricity across the province of Quebec. Back then, the mission of Hydro-Quebec was to provide electricity at a lowest fare possible but also to have only one unique fare for electricity across the province. Today, Hydro-Quebec still offers some of the cheapest fares in the world (History of Electricity in Québec, 1996-2000). It manages more than 88 facilities in the province and employs just over 22,500 workers. The society also generated revenues of $12,4B in 2011 making it the most important governmental organization of the province (Annual report 2011, 2012, p. 50).

Throughout the years, the organizational structure of Hydro-Quebec has changed, going from one organization as a whole to four divisions that act separately from one another. Each division now has their own goals and management team. However, the management structure is the same for all divisions. Matrix management structure is used due to the complexity and size of the organization. It eases the managers' job since they coordinate the activities of their direct sub-ordinates and not the team or division as a whole.

Job description

Health and security positions are the main focus of this work. Agents who occupy these positions are responsible to manage health and security at work on daily basis. Agents have to plan, coordinate and control all activities that relate to the prevention of incidents on the sites. Their role is also to inform, advise and propose recommendations on the sites. The minimum requirements to apply for such positions are to pass a written exam done by the CSST (Commission of Health and Security at Work) and to do an internship for that position in any organization (Construction, 2011). Also, in order to be eligible to pass the exam given by the CSST, candidates are required to have a minimum of 10 years of experience in construction as well as a high school degree. On top of those requirements, Hydro-Quebec asks all candidates who apply for a position to take psychometric tests to determine the candidates' mental ability as well as their personality. The head of health and security is responsible to assign the new employees as well as current ones to a specific facility. He will then name a team leader for each facility based on the nominee's experience, technical skills and personal skills as the position requires frequent communication with other teams at the facility. The head of health and security at Hydro-Quebec explains that most of his communication is done with the team leaders he supervises and occasionally he will have communications with other members of the organization. Overall, planning, coordinating and controlling the activities of the team leaders of all the facilities are the mains tasks of the head of the health and security at Hydro-Quebec.

Motivation Theory

Early 1950s, psychological theorist, David McClelland proposed a new motivation concept called the need theory. According to this theory, individual's needs are developed through over time and are shaped by one's life experiences. In addition, every person's needs can be categorized in three dimensions which are achievement (n Ach), affiliation (n Aff), and power (n Pow). According to McClelland, employees will be satisfied and motivated to perform better if the following dimensions are related to their current work (Johns & Saks, 2011, chapter 5, p. 154).

Need for achievement

Individuals with high need for achievement have a sense of self-accomplishment and they seek to pursue challenging situation. There are three characteristics that exhibit need of achievement. First, they do not prefer ambiguous outcomes in which chance is the main factor of the success. With chance, the sense of achievement would not be high compared to a situation where the outcome is determined. Furthermore, the level of difficulty of the goals must not be too high-risk or low-risk since the individual will perceived it as impossible and the latter as low achievement. The last characteristic is feedback. High n Ach people need feedback from third-party perspective such as managers to monitor their progress and ensure success. As results, their main focal points are on innovations and long-term goals. It is to the degree that they work primarily for satisfaction than external factors (Cox, 1991, pp.37).

Need for Affiliation

The ones that have high need of affiliation focus more on building harmonious relationships with their peers at work and tend to accept the norms in