Alexis Reyes

Motivation
Desire is the key to motivation, but it is a determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal -- a commitment to excellence -- that will enable you to attain the success you seek. (Mario Andretti) How I only wish I knew what the key to having people desire what you want them to do is. Motivation never comes at a small price because at times what really works to motivate one person will not work for the next, nor will one strategy work for all organizations. I have a love-hate and intimate relationship with this problem as I am the current president of Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity and motivation of those under me is something that I come into contact with daily. I have been a part of the Fraternity for four years since I was a sophomore. I have enjoyed many a time with my fraternity for various reasons but mostly because I am very satisfied with what I do and who I do it for. I can tell you exactly what the benefits are because I have personally reaped most all of the rewards the Fraternity has to offer. I enjoy doing the work because I see the direct affects of it on my organization as a whole, one day is never like the other, I am free to do pretty much whatever I want, and I always get either chewed out or praised for the work I do (even though it is a lot of constructive criticism to deal with). What is most rewarding though is the fact that I actually have an affect (hopefully a positive one) on those in my organization. Theta Tau has been the only professional Engineering organization on campus ever since its instantiation in 1988. The purpose of Theta Tau is to develop and maintain a high standard of professional interest among its members, and to unite them in a strong bond of fraternal fellowship. Our open motto states, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might

Ecclesiastes 9:10. Since this chapters founding our long standing efforts have been to help future students attain a higher education, help current students realize their academic and professional goals and potential, and to help graduating members acquire employment after college. All the while Theta Tau has been readying its current members prepare for a professional career in a very competitive industry. Theta Tau as an organization on campus hosts many workshops on campus that are open to the public on topics such as alcohol abuse, hazing awareness, resume building, and programming fundamentals. We also host various competitions including, robot building, computer programming, math, and video games. We also provide courtesy services like in the winter when we hand out free hot chocolate and soup to cold students. Many activities are done privately for members only such as resume workshops, goal setting workshops, study sessions, tutoring, charitable fundraisers, and, of course, parties. Being part of any organization on campus has tremendous benefits and rewards and Theta Tau is no different. Theta Tau through a large network of alumni from the University of Michigan Dearborn and Theta Tau provide job, coop, and internship opportunities to current members so they are employed after college. This is very important to our members because, like most college students, many of them are going through school supported by loans which we will have to pay interest on after college. This is also the most commonly mentioned reward from those interviewed. Another significant reward across those who were interviewed is the sense of belonging and fellowship, or brotherhood as we say, that is felt and gained when one becomes part of the Fraternity and during their time as a member. This brotherhood is not only given almost freely but earned by hanging out with brothers and spending time together. This is one of the biggest rewards for many brothers in fraternities because it always gives you a back up set of

hands when work needs to be done or when you need someone to catch your fall. Brotherhood gives support and security just like you would get in your family, except you get to pick these people, unlike the former. Many of the interviewees stated academic support as one of the main rewards of joining the Fraternity. I can personally attest to this one as many a time when I was having trouble in a class there was always someone older than me in the fraternity that had already taken that class. Professional guidance is also a benefit of the fraternity. Many of the interviewees said that it is helpful to know what to expect when going into a job where you have absolutely no experience in. One of the rewards of the Fraternity comes from doing the work itself. Some of the interviewees mentioned that doing the work with your brothers is a reward in and of itself because of the good times and memories you have with your friends. These are most of the rewards that motivate the people who I interviewed and maybe we can see what motivational concepts apply to them. In my experience motivation is not easy; in fact, keeping people motivated is a constant problem that you have to deal with as a leader. Low attendance in meetings is a constant issue with our organization for the reason that if we dont have people in the meetings no one knows what is going on and we cant effectively get things done. When we do manage set up activities and events at the school finding an adequate amount of volunteers is a constant struggle because everyone is doing their own things and obviously they would rather be doing something else than helping out the organization. This issue manifests itself in the leadership as well, low amount of doers leads to more work the administration, so much so in fact that not many people accept nominations to take up positions of leadership. This issue results in a very small selection for leadership within the fraternity, and those best suited for the position arent always those who are

selected for it. I will describe some happenings that have been going on lately and how they relate to the leadership and motivation of my organization as a whole. Goals have been a large part of our weekly meetings for the last two semesters. We recently had fault in leadership where our president was not properly in contact with the National Fraternity of Theta Tau and we were put on probation as a chapter. As part of our probation we were given a list of requirements/guidelines we had to correspond to to release ourselves from probation. This list was an amalgamation of goals for the chapter on all fronts of our activity. This was also the first time that we were under this type of scrutiny by the national organization. Some members took very well to it and others not so much. Dan is a new member of the fraternity, in fact, we was initiated shortly after we were given these requirements. Since these requirements were something we were very focused on at the time, and still to this day, Dan came into the fraternity with the notion that these goals had to be met. I came to find out that this mindset had come to really affect his personal goals for the fraternity. Dan started another organization on campus and has been using that organization to booster the fraternity at large. Dan shows high levels of motivation and displays citizenship behaviors quite often. Dan even said that he feels a joy and accomplishment from doing the work that he does and feels he plays a big part in accomplishing those goals. Nick is a current member and former Vice President of the Fraternity. Nick has also been in the fraternity as long as I have and is a very big proponent of self motivation and does not like the requirements at all. He believes that many of the requirements set upon us were impossible to meet. He thought many of the goals were not relevant to the chapter and these goals caused in a big way his withdrawal from leadership and responsibility in the Fraternity. From these two gentlemen I gained a respect for the feature of attainability in goal setting for that can make a large difference in the

level of performance and motivation the individual will show. Goal setting can have excellent results if done right but it also depends on the persons attitude towards achieving or not achieving those goals. It also depends highly on the amount of feedback you are getting, as an older member Nick was given less feedback on his performance and as a newer member Dan was given a lot of feedback. One of the interviewees, Derek, was a prime example of how given the right expectancy and rewards, an individual can flourish in an organization. Derek is an active participant in Fraternity events and activities and facilitates athletic and social activities for his brothers around campus. He represents Theta Tau as often as he can and does so with pride. He actively helps those around him with classes, homework, and even girls. From his interview I felt that the valence of the rewards play a big part in his motivation. He feels that he has the ability to perform at a high level and also that if he performs well he will be rewarded. But most of all he gains a sense of accomplishment from the work he does. Derek loves getting praise for his good work and the job he has now, through connections with alumni, he feels is a direct investment of effort and reputation in himself from alumni. Derek is an excellent performer and is very motivated to do well in the fraternity and I feel it is because the rewards and the work itself offer a great deal of motivation. This is however just one case, as I will explain next, some people do not feel the same way. Equity is very important when it comes to motivation in my group. One of the interviewees, Josh, reaps many rewards and benefits from Theta Tau. Josh has gotten homework help many times, opportunities for employment, and gets to go to the all the parties. Even though he gains much from the Fraternity he remarks that his input is minimal. Among the things he does for the Fraternity are storing stuff in his garage; attend events set up by other brothers, and

help set up events from time to time. He feels that the rewards of the fraternity are vast in comparison to the amount of work and effort he puts in. On the other hand we have Nick, who among his efforts for the fraternity are organizing, setting up, and managing events and activities, motivating others, helping with other brothers events, and helping younger members with their classes. He gets the same rewards as Josh, yet Nick feels that he is far under rewarded for his efforts. Nick has developed a tension between him and those he calls lazy because he feels that they do not deserve the rewards they reap for so little effort when there are those that are putting great amounts of effort. Though the motivational and performance levels of the interviewees vary greatly, they mostly all agree on one thing. That idea is that there is no real rewards system or process of rewarding those who do good work for the Fraternity. We are currently trying to set up a rewards process in the form of the Holzhaur award, named for our founding member, this award and recognition would go to members who have shown outstanding effort and commitment to the fraternity. At the moment our reward system is comprised of praise for good work and criticism for poor work or effort. This is a problem evident from the multitude of issues we face on a daily basis. Yet there is a layer under the surface that does provide a system of rewards and benefits and that is the alumni job market. Most alumni are not willing or not long willing, to give out recommendations and referrals to just any member of the Fraternity because they experienced the same people when they were going through. Those who dont do much work and those who are a detriment to the Fraternity are not given referrals or recommendations. This fits surprisingly well with the essence of the Fraternity in that the professional world is not one filled with people rewarding you at every step of the way but those above you will put their name on the line to give you a promotion or let you use them as a recommendation if they trust they you

will not be a lazy good for nothing. Although I and others such as Nick have felt this level of rewards and benefits adequate for quite some time, I feel that a strong set of goals and a reward system would be to our benefit. It has showed through the newest members like Dan to work out quite well. It inspires a great level of motivation and participation. I feel this is something that we really should continue doing in the future while maintaining the structure of constant praise we currently have; this will lead to a much brighter future.

Index
Nick N. Senior Mechanical Engineering Student and currently an Engineering Co-op at TRW. Former Vice Regent (President) of Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity. His duties included pushing paper at work and finally graduating this semester with his Bachelors degree This interview was done in person on March 6th and lasted approximately 20 minutes.

Joshua P. Senior Math student and currently a Janitor for Master Maintenance. Current member of Theta Tau. His duties include assisting with Fraternity activities, manufacturing fashionable apparel for the Fraternity, and getting good grades and passing his classes. This interview was done in person on March 6th and lasted approximately 20 minutes.

Daniel B. Sophomore Bioengineering student and currently a volunteer and Childs hope, a subsidiary of AmeriCorps. Current Scribe of Theta Tau, his duties include taking minutes at chapter meetings, assisting with Fraternity activities and getting good grades. This interview was done in person on March 5th and lasted approximately 10 minutes.

Derek S. Junior Mechanical Engineering student and currently working at Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Plant. Current Corresponding secretary of Theta Tau his duties include; consulting with other chapters and organizing activities with them, facilitating athletic activities for current members, creating a quarterly news letter of the chapters activities and events, and getting good grades. This interview was done in person on March 5th and lasted approximately 15 minutes.