Design of a motivational model to enhance volunteer student group performance

Motivation is a subject of great interest to managers seeking to improve overall team performance. Furthermore, motivation has been my greatest challenge as team manager of the MIT Motorsports Formula SAE team. This group is composed of volunteer students dedicating their time for an extra-curricular activity. This thesis serves to develop a motivational model unique to MIT Motorsports with the goal of increasing overall team performance. MIT Motorsports team dynamics are described through performance observations and feedback from a survey given to team members. This analysis is combined with a discussion of traditional and contemporary theories of motivation to yield a new improved model of motivation. Conclusions of this thesis are particularly useful for future MIT Motorsports team managers. While this model is specific to MIT Motorsports, the overall approach to the universal problem can enlighten any manager seeking to receive gains from the motivation to performance relationship.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Audette, Joseph M. (Joseph Malentacchi)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Daniel Frey.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32884

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32884