Read the cases of Getta Grant, Rita Writer, Bob the Builder and Myra the Volunteer manager. Which theories of motivation might be most relevant to their cases? Why?

Getta Grant

Getta Grant is director of development at a medium-sized nonprofit that provides a range of services to adolescents from disadvantaged urban communities. She reports to the executive director. The organization receives some government funding but is also reliant on foundations and individual donors. Getta's responsibilities include staying informed about foundation interests and giving patterns and working with the organization's three program directors to identify foundations that may be prospects for support of their programs and projects. She drafts letters of inquiry and, where appropriate, meets with foundation officers and writes proposals. Getta has been with the organization for five years and was hired by the previous executive director, who always gave her "excellent" (the highest rating) on her annual performance reviews.

The current executive director has been in her job less than a year. She inherited Getta from her predecessor. When she had just arrived, it was already time for Getta's annual evaluation. The new executive director read a couple of proposals that Getta had written, thought they were good, and continued her "excellent" rating without much further thought. Getta seemed pleased to have her high rating continued. When Getta writes something, it is generally of high quality. But over the past year, the executive director has become unhappy with the amount of work Getta produces and with her inability to meet deadlines. Since her last review, Getta has produced only a handful of letters and two proposals.

The executive director gave her positive feedback on that work, which was indeed good, thinking that would motivate her to work harder and faster. But Getta has continued to produce relatively few proposals, and in some cases, they have taken so long that she missed foundation deadlines. She is coming up soon for her second evaluation with the executive director, who is now quite frustrated with her performance. The executive director met with Getta recently and explained that she is unhappy. She warned Getta that her performance evaluation might not be so positive this year. Getta seemed shocked. "But you said my proposals are good," she protested, "and you gave me an 'excellent' rating last year!" Since that meeting, Getta has missed several of days of work, calling in sick or saying she was "working at home." And the executive director has seen almost no additional work

Rita Writer

Rita Writer is a member of the communications and marketing staff at a large environmental nonprofit. She has various responsibilities, including writing press releases, articles for the quarterly magazine, copy for brochures that are produced for fundraising and other purposes, and material for the organization's website. Rita had previously worked as a marketing specialist in the alumni relations office of a local college and came with outstanding references. When she accepted her new job, she said she wanted to make the change so that she would have more opportunity to write, since her job in alumni relations also included responsibility for attending events and required considerable travel. Rita now has been in her current job for about three months.

She produces an adequate volume of writing, but it is consistently full of glaring errors. Her manager, the vice president for communications and marketing, sometimes sends the work back to Rita for revisions. But most times the vice president just edits the work herself, not wanting to confront Rita and thinking that it is faster for her to take on the task. She has not said anything to Rita, but is becoming increasingly unhappy with her performance. She is concerned that firing Rita would be an unpopular decision among the other staff, so she is reluctant to do so. But she is wondering what she can do to increase Rita's contribution to the organization.

One of Rita's colleagues mentioned to the vice president that Rita spends a lot of time on the phone talking to people in chapter offices around the country. In addition, the organization sponsors a number of public events, including lectures on environmental issues that are followed by receptions. Although she is not required to do so, Rita attends many of them on her work time and always stays for the reception, mingling with the guests. One of her colleagues said sarcastically to the vice president, "Rita just seems to prefer socializing to doing her job

Bob the Builder

Bob is a volunteer at an organization that provides services to older people in the community, enabling them to continue living in their own homes. Older clients are matched with volunteers, who agree to visit with them at least once a week to assist them with matters such as paying bills, performing light housework or yard work, and similar tasks. When their homes need modest upkeep or repairs, such as painting, volunteers with appropriate skills are assigned as a team to complete the job. The organization's director of volunteers recruits volunteers with needed skills, assigning them to clients and projects and ensuring quality in the work they perform.

Bob was a building contractor and has recently retired. He has been a longtime but occasional volunteer. His wife, Mary, is a member of the board of directors, and Bob and Mary have been regular contributors to the annual fundraising campaign. A few months ago, Bob approached the director of volunteer programs and said that he would now have more time and would like to do more work with the organization. Delighted at the offer, especially in light of his professional skills, the director assigned him to supervise several home repair project teams. Recently, however, she became concerned when she heard from another volunteer that Bob was going way beyond the scope of the projects assigned.

In one case, the project team was sent to do some painting for a homeowner, but Bob had performed some electrical wiring in the woman's house. In another case, he replaced some plumbing. The director became concerned about the risks in that type of work and the potential liability to the organization should something go wrong. In addition, she is now receiving complaints from other volunteers who have worked with Bob.

One volunteer has told her that Bob treats other volunteers as if they were members of the crew of his former construction company. And he doesn't treat them well. He assigns them work and then criticizes them for not doing it fast enough or well enough. Some of the volunteers have said that they will not work with him again. The director of volunteer programs met with the executive director and discussed her concerns about Bob. The executive director was somewhat dismissive, saying she thinks Bob is a great asset to the organization. "After all," she said, "He's a professional builder. We are fortunate to have someone with his skills involved." She then added, "Anyway, it's difficult to do anything about it with Mary serving on the board

Myra the Volunteer Manager

Myra is currently the paid volunteer manager at a nonprofit that provides after-school enrichment programs for children from low-income neighborhoods. Before Myra was hired, she worked for many years as a volunteer for the organization, which had a professional executive director but no staff member serving as volunteer manager. But managing the volunteers directly became too time consuming for the executive director, and she was able to place funds in the budget to make a volunteer manager position for the first time last year. Because of Myra's experience as a longstanding volunteer, the executive director offered her the new position, thinking that her experience would enable her to build and manage the program.

Myra accepted the assignment and has been in her position for about a year. She recruits volunteers, provides them with orientation and training, and supervises their work. Until recently, the organization always had attracted well-qualified volunteers in the numbers it needed to sustain its programs. But over the past year, the turnover of volunteers has increased, and both the number and quality of individuals expressing an interest in serving has declined. The executive director met with Myra and expressed her concern. Myra became defensive. She said that she recruits volunteers the same way the organization always has, through churches and other organizations in the community and through word of mouth among friends. "People just don't seem to be as committed as they used to be," she complained.

The executive director suggested, "How about trying to get the word out at the local university. I would think that some students would be interested in working with us. And maybe we should be more visible on Facebook and other social networking sites." "I tried the university," Myra responded. "I even put up flyers on some bulletin boards on the campus, but we didn't get any responses. And I don't think it is appropriate for us to be on those 'websites' where people put up pictures of their pets!" She added, "I guess young people just have so much else going on in their lives that they don't have time for our children." The executive director observed, "But we have enlisted some younger volunteers and they don't stay with us for long. Why are we having such high turnover?" Myra again became defensive. "We can't just let people do things however they want. We have an established program, and there are established procedures and policies that volunteers need to follow. Some of the young people who come in just want to question everything. No matter what I tell them to do, they ask why and want to discuss new ideas with me. I don't have time for all of that. I just think people today are different from the folks who used to volunteer with us