Introduction

Watson (1996), in his article, propose an ethnographic experiment. His objective is to study the engagement of his students in the motivation theories he teaches.

I admire Watson’s attempt to design an experiment as controllable in dealing with the irreproducibility of an experiment that treats human behaviour. That falls into the domain of a complex system. As we discussed in Unit 2, “Every person is a world”.

During my life and my previous studies in System Thinking (The Open University, 2016), I noted that it is complicated to separate the “self” component from the system to study. In Watson’s case, his inquiry about the study of better ways to teach motivation will irremediably change him about his teaching approach, making the experiment not reproducible anymore.

I draw my attention to Watson’s two competing goals: the “researcher” and his attempt to carry on with the experiment mean that he will not apply everything he learned until that moment to provide some reproducibility in the control group. While the “lecturer”, and the professional duty of performing his best, he cannot ignore the previous lessons of his practice to favour the experiment.

I think that is a dilemma of competing goals, similar to the managing ethical reading (Cunliffe, 2014).

Me as a professional

I would have liked for Watson to ask the goals of each student in his lectures. In my opinion, different students might have other goals when studying an MBA, ranging from a deep interest in motivation theories as the student goal might be to become a head of HRM corporation and in the other point a Financial Analyst for whom the concepts of motivation will play little part in its professional practice.

I also noted that the lack of time and an attitude of dealing with situations in “Getting by” mode instead of “Getting on top” as illustrated in the “I don’t have to think!” paper (Raelin, 2002).

Me as a student

The observations of Watson and the students regarding a simplistic approach attractiveness is a flaw of most people (myself included) that have been analysed by cognitive psychology.

(Finucane et al., 2000), remarked an important reason for an excellent lecturer to slow down the lesson’s pace and invite the students for a critical analysis of the information presented and prevent the “swallowing” of information.

Last, I should note that in my experience, the learning also occurs outside the classroom and even several years after the lessons.

I find myself understanding some concepts that were “swallowed” in the first year of my degree at a later time during my master’s degree.

I think the job of a lecturer and a tutor is similar to planting a seed that will grow, and only after years, the results will be shown.

Therefore some of the feedback coming as exams or questioners at the end of the subject is just a snapshot of the learning after a short period that might not contain enough information to evaluate the big picture.

Conclusion

Even though I can’t entirely agree with the reliability of the ethnography experiment, I must admit that I share the conclusions and advice drawn by Watson. I like the irony of a motivation lecturer questioning the best way to motivate students to learn about motivation actively.