- Why Motivating People Doesn't Work...
- Susan Fowler
- 479字
- 2021-04-03 17:14:41
The ARC Domino Effect
Even though I described each of the three psychological needs individually, appreciating the integrated nature of ARC is important.
Imagine you have a manager with control needs. She micromanages people and projects—whether they need it or not. She either fails to acknowledge or doesn't care about the opportunity loss she is creating through her inappropriate leadership style and its impact on the psychological needs of those she leads. She seems content with not changing her ways—after all, she has successfully moved up in the organization.
You have proven yourself to her over the years, especially when it comes to collecting sales data and submitting the quarterly report to headquarters. In fact, when she took a leave of absence, you completed the reports on your own. Yet your manager still demands to review and edit your reports and send them to headquarters herself. The changes she makes seem to be arbitrary. There is simply no pleasing her. Her micromanagement is undermining your sense of autonomy—she is controlling your work and not allowing you to think for yourself. You are afraid to go over her head to complain because you've seen what happens to complainers.
This is how the ARC Domino Effect begins. Your lack of autonomy raises questions in your mind about your competence. Your inability to manage your manager's overinvolvement or the organizational politics involved further erodes your competence. Your manager's ineffective leadership, lack of sensitivity to your needs, and apparent self-interest prevent any sense of relatedness. Intangible external forces (her micromanaging style and your fear) dictate your internal sense of well-being. If the economy was better and jobs were easier to find, you would leave.
When it comes to your reports, you do them because you are afraid of what will happen if you don't. You have an imposed motivational outlook. Driven by fear, and maybe a little guilt, you do your job, all the while thinking, I will do the reports because I have to, but I resent it. I will do just enough to get by. You do not bother to think about the work creatively or add quality because your manager would probably change your work anyway.
Here comes more bad news. You begin to generalize your suboptimal motivational outlook by thinking, The only reason I get up every day is to collect my paycheck! Suddenly you have an external motivational outlook toward your job—it has become all about the money.
People revel in the positive energy, vitality, and sense of well-being that occur when all three psychological needs are satisfied. But—and this is a big but—one depends on the other. The ARC Domino Effect is in full force when even one psychological need is missing. If A or R or C falls, the others are diminished as well.