THE BULK OF EXTANT MANAGEMENT LITERATURE presents work motivation from a predominantly closed-system mindset–with internal operations and efficiency comprising its focal interest. The advent of globalization and progressively heterogeneous workforce call for increasingly ingenious solutions to ever more convoluted problems of managing modern organizations. That reality spawned the demand to counterpose this principally linear, cause-and-effect view of organizational dynamics. By engrafting its content in an open-system paradigm, the book commences its exploration of work motivation with individual-level dissection of the phenomenon and by transitioning through the group analysis concludes the process with the broader environmental perspective–thus pushing the debate on work motivation beyond the organizational context. This conceptual expansion synthesizes the existing knowledge and permits a novel outlook on work motivation through ancillary lenses of individual and team dynamics entrenched in cross-cultural mosaic of globally diverse labor. With the intent of applying the most seminal disciplinary research, in explicitly defined circumstances that managers address on a diurnal basis, the book provides a practical and salutary guide on a path to managerial excellence.

With this book, I attempted to respond to a broadly echoed criticism that the modern paradigm of motivation rests on a relatively narrow theory, which must be further developed and enriched to meaningfully address the challenges of new economy–driven and sustained by knowledgeable, highly educated workforce. To contribute to that objective, I decided to take a comprehensive, multi-level approach by expanding the debate beyond the boundaries of a traditional, predominantly psychological view of work motivation. Important as this view may be to understanding human motivation in general, the psychological perspective alone fails to address the social and anthropological underpinnings of culturally diverse individuals, who are employed to achieve organizational goals–often collaboratively. Consequently, psychological approaches, although useful, are insufficient to detect patterns of how those dynamics shape the nature of motivation in modern organizations. The first three chapters of the book provide a conceptual outline of work motivation and the leadership roles that emerge on each level of the management hierarchy: Chapter 1 Motivation – the Role of a Supervisor Chapter 2 Teamwork – the Role of a Manager Chapter 3 Volatility – the Role of an Executive Of course, no effective manager can forgo the planning. Without a plan of action, even the most perfectly understood system will account for nothing. To achieve a high performing organization, management must devise a comprehensive plan accompanied by appropriate strategies that encompass each major system of organizational dynamics. For that purpose, chapters 4 through 6 include practical applications of studied theories: Chapter 4 Employee–Create an Effective Incentive Plan (The plan has to carefully navigate among different needs and perceptions of team members as determined by their personalities, age, gender, and other social dynamics–with a simultaneous objective of fostering common team goals). Chapter 5 Enterprise–Build a Team…not Group (The plan has to carefully navigate among different needs and perceptions of team members as determined by their personalities, age, gender and other social dynamics, with a simultaneous objective of fostering common team goals). Chapter 6 Environment–Think Globally (The plan has to carefully navigate among different needs and perceptions of individual team members determined by the cultural influences that shaped them. The early formative culture-driven experiences are powerful determinants of human behavior that have to be accounted for by managers who attempt to optimize employee performance).

ANDRZEJ Z. WLODARCZYK, Ph.D. is a Management Professor with an extensive undergraduate and graduate university teaching and administrative experience. He earned his Ph.D. from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, M.B.A from Lindenwood University, MO, and M.Ed. from Concordia University, NE. He completed his undergraduate studies at Jagiellonian University in his native Krakow, Poland. He is a founder and president of A.Z. Wlodarczyk Consulting, LLC–specializing in training and management development. He is married to a wonderful and beautiful woman named MaryBeth–his artistic muse and inspiration to whom he dedicates this book (Sine Qua Non). For comments on the book and consulting services, he can be reached at wlodarczykconsulting@yahoo.com