Child Protect: An Agency Under Fire Management Assignment

Assignment 2
ChildProtect: an agency under fire
Your Name
Your Institution of Affiliation
Introduction
In the case presented in the article Child Protect: An Agency under Fire, the author discussed how does the agency, Child Protect (Jeugdbescherming in Dutch), failed in upholding its tasks, as well as how did succeeding administrations manage to get out of this failure. More specifically, the author discussed the agency’s problem as perceived by the government, which is its failure to fulfil its main task: “assessing the risks posed to vulnerable children and providing timely help where required”. In line with this case, the author of this paper would try to discuss the article presented in relation to the “four-drive theory” as well as the “Expectancy Theory of Motivation”. Mainly, these perspectives would act as frameworks in the analysis of the said case. In the end, the author of this paper believes that one of the reasons as to why the agency of ChildProtect failed in doing what they have to do is because of their focus on “reactive” strategic planning, rather than the other three drives as presented in the four-drive theory. In relation to the expectancy theory of motivation, the author also believes that perhaps, the main reason is that the managers and the executive of the administration failed on directing the work efforts towards creating the belief within the organization that their work would lead to the expected outcomes. In the next sections, the four-drive theory, as well as the Expectancy theory of motivation, would be discussed in finer details, which would then related to the case presented in the later ones.
Four-Drive theory
Mainly, the Four-drive theory believes that for any individual to do and complete a task, he/she must have the “four kinds” of drives, which is the drive to acquire, to bond, to comprehend, and to defend. In this model, it is believed that all of these four drives are innate in every individual and exists in a complete set, thus prompting the idea that none of them could be excluded. Aside from this, this theory also believes that despite all of these four existing as a part of a “complete set”, the three of them always exist as ‘pro-active’ while the fourth one (drive to defend) exists in a reactive state. In line with the case presented it was said that ChildProtect was placed under a close supervision from the government, because of this it could be said that it was placed under a “reactive state” which also influenced the mindset of the employees which then caused the failure of fulfilling its mandate. According to the four-drive theory, in order for a person to become motivated then he/she must be able to work independently and avoid the desire the reactive state because it affects a person’s mental and emotional well-being. In the case of the agency, it was said that the time of the heightened supervision has caused a lot of hostility in between the members and groups. One instance of this would be during the time when the core group has suggested a cost-effective method for discussing what’s best for the children and the family, the core group was then opp...