Reference no: EM132864028

Francine was a senior manager at a graphic design business. Ahmed, a project team member, was one of her subordinates. Ahmed was a bit of a rebel - always doing things a bit differently than everyone else and not strictly following the rules, but he also had a history of being helpful to his colleagues and of assisting the junior designers on his team. Following a company restructure, Ahmed's behavior had become increasingly problematic, at least from Francine's perspective. Ahmed seemed to be shirking his own independent work, and when he did complete his assignments, he wouldn't report back to Francine as all the other designers did, so she never knew what he had done. Because of this, she often neglected to give him feedback and she realized that he probably had no idea about her dissatisfaction with his performance.

Francine called Ahmed to a formal meeting and tried to explain that he needed to do as he was told and that, since the restructure, he really had not been meeting the company's expectations. She told him that the C-suite executives were putting pressure on her to speed turnaround times and that he needed to do his part. She asked him if he understood what he needed to do, and Ahmed said: "Sure, Francine. No problem," and he walked out. Unfortunately, Francine didn't get the feeling that her argument had actually made any impact. In her opinion, Ahmed had no intention of changing his ways: He would continue to support other team members and help them to solve their problems, but this would come at the expense of fulfilling his own responsibilities. Francine wondered whether Ahmed had become a misfit in the new structure and whether she would need to let him go.

Ahmed walked out of the meeting thinking that Francine really didn't get him. He didn't like working by himself in his cubicle, and he felt constrained when he had to follow strict design procedures and deadlines. He preferred talking to people, learning new things, and being challenged to solve novel problems and take initiatives to change things. It was true that he could just work on the designs that Francine assigned to him and he would feel "effective," but it didn't inspire him.

About a month later, nothing changed, just as Francine had predicted. She decided that she would meet with Ahmed again. She needed to get to the bottom of his apparent lack of motivation, or else she really would have to fire him - an action that she did not want to take. During the meeting, Ahmed admitted that his true passion was helping others and he asked if he could be shifted to a role as a trainer. When Francine heard the request, it was so obvious. She couldn't believe that she hadn't figured it out sooner. The following day Francine transferred Ahmed to the role of trainer and, within no time, his motivation improved.

Francine turned control over to Ahmed and let him take the initiative to walk around the office and provide guidance to anyone who was running into problems. Ahmed felt so much more capable when he showed the junior designers, and even some of the senior ones, his tricks and shortcuts, and he thrived on being in charge of figuring out what needed to be done. With Ahmed in the trainer's role, Francine also realized how many fewer requests she was getting for help, how much faster the turnarounds had become, and how much more she could accomplish of her own strategic work.

QUESTION

Apply self-determination theory to explain why Ahmed's motivation increased when he switched to the trainer's role. Also, provide a rationale as to whether you would recommend job crafting as a way to further motivate Ahmed in his new position. Use information from the case to support your analysis and make sure you include the word count for your answer.