Guide to Motivation and Empowerment in PMP
Motivation and empowerment are crucial aspects of Project Human Resource Management, as defined in the PMBOK Guide Seventh Edition.
Importance: Understanding the concepts of motivation and empowerment is vital since it leads to improved project performance, positive organizational climate, increased creativity, and individual satisfaction. Essentially, motivation and empowerment can significantly contribute to the project's success.
Concept: Motivation refers to the reasons that underlie behavior that is characterized by willingness and volition. Empowerment, on the other hand, is about giving team members authority to make decisions and giving them a sense of ownership and responsibility for their tasks.
How it works: The project manager has to enhance team members' intrinsic motivation and empowerment. Intrinsic motivation can be enhanced by setting challenging and meaningful objectives, providing feedback, and enabling skill development. For empowerment, project managers are recommended to delegate, provide resources, support decision-making, and share leadership.
Exam Tips: When answering questions about motivation and empowerment, remember to think from a project manager’s perspective. Most of the questions will be situational, understand the scenario thoroughly. When in doubt, lean towards choices that encourage communication, team involvement, and respect for diversity.
For instance, in a question where you have to prioritize between task completion and team motivation, the latter often scores better as the PMP exam emphasizes human resource management and team development.