Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort's ability to satisfy some individual needs (Robbins, 168). For some business analysts, employee motivation is a good way to increase productivity in an organization. When people get motivated, they will have a reason to put more efforts on what they are doing. Motivation is a crucial management tool in lifting the organization's work force. Motivation takes forms like offering rewards, improving working conditions, or employee recognition. However, whi

With all these attempts at motivating the chapter, and the success in doing so, I was in the position to make some very significant decisions. I feel that my personality greatly helped out my presidency because I was able to look into the problem. It is very difficult to have to make decisions based on the good of the chapter, as opposed to personal discrepancy. All CEO's have to deal with this too. "Do I not want this to happen because I personally don't want it to happen, or it isn't in the best interest of the chapter," was what I was constantly asking myself. This is an area of leadership and decision-making that I feel is one of the more difficult. Early on I didn't know how to differentiate the two, but later it became more clear to me.

And finally, there's the Reinforcement theory, where rewards or punishment is used as a means of encouragement or discouragement. When a company pays for each piece produced or uses promotions, praise, or pay increases, this is a reward. I f an employee is constantly late or absent a lot a company may dock that individual. This is a punishment designed to change their behavior.

Critical thinking styles and forces of influence in making decisions is a major portion of the manager's responsibilities. It is not an aspect that cannot be taken lightly nor can it be done in a hasty manner. Hasty, careless decisions can have devastating results on the leader and the entire company. Decisions that are made with deliberation using different kinds of processes, however, can lead the department or company to better and/or more profitable operations. When decisions are made in this manner, the leader should feel confident that he or she has made an appropriate decision and it is the best decision for the company. This does not mean to say that the leader will always make the correct decision, because often lack of information or situational changes can lead to faulty analysis. However, if the leader uses critical thinking and proven successful decision-making strategies, he or she can and should be confident in whatever action they have decided is appropriate. Their own confidence level will, in fact, affect the outcome of their action.

Leaders can be called "information workers"; a leader is a craftsperson whose raw material is information (McCall & Kaplan 16)." Leaders spend the majority of their time absorbing information and trying to process all the information in order to reach a decision of some sort or another. Within the realm of the information system a leader has many sources of where he or she may get this information, including, (a) systems and structures set up to keep them apprised on ongoing events, (b) the people around them who volunteer information and can be approached in search of trouble signs, clues, and missing pieces of puzzles, (c) the values of the organization, which point people in certain directions and define the critical variables in a complex array of possibilities, and (d) the leaders own direct experience" (McCall Kaplan, 16)

Now, after looking at motivation and the various theories that prove its significance in a leadership role, one can look at the uses of motivation to look into an equally serious leadership topic. This topic is decision-making, and it is perhaps the most significant trait that any successful leader needs to be a positive force.

After the Hawthorne studies, more attention was placed on the importance of improving human relation skills. This resulted in more contemporary motivational theories. "Theories X and Y came as a result of behavioral scientist's Douglas McGregor's conclusion that managers viewpoints of how to use a firms human resources were radically different."(Ebert, 211) He concluded that Theory X managers believed people were naturally lazy and uncooperative and must be punished or rewarded to be made productive. Theory Y managers believe that people are naturally energetic, growth-oriented, self-mo

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