Dakota Kay Is a Great Example of the Power of Self-Efficacy!
By Pierre A. Towns | August 5, 2019
Dakota Kay is a young Navajo student who was homeless and hungry throughout college to earn his PhD. Dakota has accomplished what almost everyone told him he could not, through the power of his self-efficacy, defined as the belief that each person can perform in a way that will result in a successful outcome in a specific situation. One can Google his accomplishments to date to learn more about his improbable journey and I will focus on what made that journey possible.
No matter the opportunities or lack of opportunities in our lives, we have the power to shape our future if we believe in our ability to do so! In an organization, employee engagement is not just dependent or influenced by the organization; the organizations’ members play a vital role. At HRCC, we have developed the 3D Employee Engagement Model℠ as a tool to analyze and inform each parties’ contributions to creating an engaged enterprise, so our consultants can recommend specific initiatives to address each.
Self-efficacy beliefs begin to form in early childhood, but as with most behaviors, can continue to evolve and be shaped and influenced throughout life. As a learned behavior, employees can increase self-efficacy behavior over time with commitment and practice.
As one of the most studied topics in psychology, self-efficacy has been proven to significantly influence psychological states, behavior and motivation. Therefore, when implementing engagement initiatives, it is not clear why management consultants and employers have focused so much on only changing the employer’s structures, policies, procedures and practices while failing to provide employees with the tools to increase their self-efficacy.
This 3D Employee Engagement Model℠ posits that for any engagement initiative, the optimal effect over time requires both the employer-driven ‘engagement climate’ and employee-driven self-efficacy. As the 3D Employee Engagement Model℠ indicates, when appropriate attention is paid to simultaneously increasing the engagement climate and the employee’s self-efficacy, the desired behaviors are significantly increased.
To learn more about our transformational 3D Employee Engagement℠ Model, visit us at HRCConsultants.com
Pierre A. Towns is the Managing Partner of Human Resource Capital Consultants Inc., (HRCC) and teaches at the College of Business Administration, California State University San Marcos. He has taught Organization Behavior for the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California (USC) and has guest lectured at the Andersen School of Business, UC Riverside. He is a former not-for-profit and for-profit ‘C’ level executive and has worked for Room to Read, MedUnite, ARCO, DreamWorks, Wells Fargo Bank and Monsanto. Mr. Towns earned an MBA from USC and, a B.S. in Economics and B.A. in Administration from U.C. Riverside. He has also been a guest speaker at International and domestic conferences.
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A minority, women owned, organization development corporation established in 2003 to address the needs of startups, emerging businesses, government, and Fortune 500 companies. We deliver services internationally through employees, independent consultants and partner firms to “Enable their Ultimate Competitive Advantage℠”
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