Group Motivation

A recent expedition on Dartmoor for my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award practice expedition has caused me to think about motivation and the different things that can affect it. According to B, Sharp; “Motivation is inextricably bound up with attitudes, feelings, expectations, needs and emotions.” This shows that there are numerous factors that can affect the motivation levels of both individuals and groups.

At the start of the expedition, when we left Warwick for Dartmoor, the motivation levels were extremely high; everyone was excited about going and achieving something that for most of us was a new experience. It became clear as the expedition wore on that the motivation levels were waning, especially when the group members were hungry, it was also around these times that the tolerance levels of the group were lower, people were more unwilling to be dragged across a field with a bleak landscape to spend yet another night in a tent.

One of the reasons that the levels of motivation began to lower was partly due to the major gap between the different members of the group. Those group members who were up at the front, had a faster pace, which therefore meant that they had to wait for the rest of the group to catch up owning to the difference in pace. At first this seemed not to bother than many people, however, as the trip extended, it became clearer that it was irritating several group members, both those who were faster and those who were slower. Although there had been several attempts to keep the group together, it was clear that those who of a faster pace were unaware of those further behind them.

This proved to be an annoyance and meant that tempers were running high at certain points. The one occasion that this was especially prominent for this specific lowering of motivation was on the final day. The faster members of the group were a good 400 metres in front of the slower group members, it was coming up to lunch time, as the energy levels were flagging. The bigger the distance became, the less likely it seemed that those with a faster pace were likely to locate a suitable place to break for lunch; they were unaware that the other group members were struggling to match their pace and that their energy levels were lowering more than their own. The only way that they realised these factors were when one member of the group was forced to raise the fact through the form of a raised voice. It was an awkward moment; however, it proved to be necessary, as the fact that the group was not all together was brought up by the mountain leader accompanying us.

Numerous other theorists, like B. Woods 1998, have discussed motivation, their links to other theories and how the different factors such as intrinsic stimulus and extrinsic stimulus, can create different levels of motivation for different occasions. The forms of motivation that were present on this trip were intrinsic, but also extrinsic in the form of achieving the highest award of the scheme.

Applying Psychology to Sport, B. Woods. 1998

Acquiring Skill in Sport, B. Sharp. 1992

Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, S. Priest and M. Gass. 1997