Essay Instructions: Personality, Motivation and Managing Staff
Introduction
The goal of this assignment is for you to demonstrate your ability to form an accurate understanding of people and to apply theory appropriately. To do this, you will study a character in a feature film, apply course theory, and develop actions (the actions can be initiated by others, managers, work colleagues, family members and /or by the characters themselves). In effect, we are using the films as enriched case studies that allow you to explore the complexity and subtlety of workplace behaviour and, crucially, the critical application of course theory. We have chosen characters whose behaviour is richly depicted and open to multiple interpretations. Ultimately your goal is to analyse one of these characters using course ideas and use this analysis to work out what sort of managerial actions would be relevant to improve the character?s level of motivation.
You may find that one of these films is shown on television during the period you are working on this assignment. Unfortunately, we do not think that one viewing of the film will be sufficient to conduct your analysis to the required depth. Therefore, we recommend that you obtain a copy of the film that you can view and review during the period you are working on the assignment. DVD or blu-ray disks are likely to be the best formats to work with given the quality of the images and the opportunity to navigate quickly through the film. Most of these films will be widely available for hire or purchase both on the high street and on the internet.
You need to choose one of the following characters to study in this assignment:
FILM LANGUAGE YEAR CHARACTER ACTOR
Argo English 2012 Tony Mendez Ben Affleck
El Secreto de sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) Spanish 2009 Benjam?n Esposito Ricardo Dar?n
English Vinglish Hindi & English 2012 Shashi Godbole Sridevi
Friends with Benefits English 2011 Dylan Harper Justin Timberlake
Friends with Benefits English 2011 Jamie Rellis Mila Kunis
Jiro Dreams of Sushi Japanese 2011 Jiro Ono Jiro Ono
Monsieur Lazhar French 2011 Bachir Lazhar Mohamed Fellag
Never Let Me Go English 2010 Kathy Carey Mulligan
The Artist Silent 2011 George Valentin Jean Dujardin
The Five-Year Engagement English 2012 Violet Barnes Emily Blunt
The Five-Year Engagement English 2012 Tom Solomon Jason Segel
The Story of Qiu Ju Mandarin 1992 Qiu Ju Li Gong
Warning: Please note that several of these films contain mature themes, some nudity and/or sex scenes, violence, suicide, murder, death, swearing, and sexual references. Monsieur Lazhar, El Secreto de sus Ojos, and Never Let Me Go certainly fall into this category. If these matters cause you any concern or difficulty, please choose one of the other films or contact your lecturer so that we can arrange an alternative strategy for you.
Important: Please make your decision which film you will study early on and initiate your sourcing of the film immediately. Some of these films can be difficult to obtain, e.g., The Story of Qiu Ju, and it is important you give yourself as much time as possible to get them.
Work motivation: Although part of this assignment focuses on ?work motivation? several of the chosen characters, i.e., Shashi Godbole and Qiu Ju, do not have typical jobs in commercial organisations. If you choose one of these characters to study, you might consider ?the family? as the manager, or consider motivation from a wider, non-work, perspective.
The Report
Once you have analysed your chosen character, write a report using the following structure.
Introduction (250 words maximum)
(a) Provide an introductory paragraph (or two or three) that describes:
(i) the purpose of the report
(ii) one or two of the reasons why it will be interesting to read
(iii) the structure of the report
Section One ((b)-(e): 2500 words max)
(b) Briefly describe the character you chose to study and explain why you made this choice.
(c) Using quotes and examples of his or her behaviour to illustrate and substantiate your points, and using course theory to structure your answer, describe your character?s personality.
(d) Using quotes and examples of his or her behaviour to illustrate and substantiate your points, and using course theory to structure your answer, describe your character?s motivation.
(e) Explain and discuss the managerial actions that would:
(i) increase the character?s level of motivation and,
(ii) decrease the character?s level of motivation.
Section Two (250 words max)
(l) Compare what you have learnt about motivation with the assumptions you had about motivation before doing this course. Draw some general lessons for your own work from the comparison.
I have chosen the movie Friends with Benefits , english Character is Dylan Harper played by Justin Timberlake.