To be an effective manager, you need to be able to determine an employee's personality and find the best ways based on their personality to motivate them. Failure to tie motivation to an individual employee is a recipe for failure. The manager may indeed get lucky and come across the correct motivation for an employee, but any attempt to provide non-employee-based motivation is likely to result in a waste of resources and have little or no benefit to the employee. and in some cases have a negative effect on employee motivation. Employee Personality John has been with the company for just over two years. He is a hard worker and has already demonstrated his ability to adapt quickly to any situation. Within two years he has become one of the best employees in the department, in fact last year he was awarded "Employee of the Year" for his hard work and dedication. On the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Robbins, Decenzo & Coulter, 2013) John scores high in Introversion, Intuition, Thinking, and Judgment. John prefers to work with minimal external distractions and oversights, and when it comes to solving problems John prefers to solve them himself rather than asking for assistance. When solving particular problems, John will think about the problem before acting on the solution to ensure it is correct. When it comes to taking on a leadership role, John will do so although he prefers to lead by example rather than words, although he is willing to direct younger employees when they need it. John is also a member of Generation Y (Gen Y) and as such possess many of the traits described in Table 9-6 in Management Fundamentals (Robbins, Decenzo & Coulter, 2013). It has a high expectation… middle of paper… dBristow, D., Amyx, D., Castleberry, S.B., & Cochran, J.J. (2011). A CROSS-GENERATIONAL COMPARISON OF MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS IN SALES CAREERS AMONG GEN-X AND GEN-Y COLLEGE STUDENTS. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 31(1), 77-85. doi:10.2753/PSS0885-3134310105Chung Hee, K., & SCULLION, H. (2013). The effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee motivation: A cross-national study. Poznan University of Economics Review, 13(2), 5-30. Robbins, S., Decenzo, D., & Coulter, M. (2013). Management fundamentals. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.Skiba, M., & Rosenberg, S. (2011). The disutility of equity theory in contemporary management practice. Journal Of Business & Economic Studies, 17(2), 1-19. Surveys say workers value recognition, virtual rewards more than financial incentives. (2013). Salary Survey Report, 20(7), 15.