Pedagogical sciences / 2.Problems of specialists’ training

Kutsova E.L., Trusova T.V.

South-Russia State University of Economics and Service, Russia

SELF-MOTIVATION AS A MEANS FOR PROFESSIONAL SELF-PROMOTION OF A MODERN SPECIALIST

At present one of the most important objects of the educational policy of the state in the sphere of university professional education is the training of future specialists and their adaptation to the life in market conditions. For successful self-realization in their professional activity it is necessary for them not only to acquire different competences (subject, activity oriented, social) but what is more important is to acquire perfect skills of self-education, self-presentation, the skills of doing some research work, designing and controlling their knowledge, that is the skills of using educational self-management technologies. Self-motivation of the personality of a future specialist plays a significant role in this process.

The problem of self-motivation has been widely discussed recently in scientific literature. Motivation, in the broad sense, is the incentive to a certain activity. But self-motivation is the incentive to one’s own activity. In both cases one’s own reality is studied. A man estimates his experience comparing it with the experience of others and turns it into an object of his reflections. In other words, self-motivation is always an overcoming of oneself, it is always a choice between, or harmonization of your “want” and “must” and both the overcoming and harmonization are always a personal growth of a man [1].

Thus, self-motivation is meant when we ourselves induce to it. The authors of the existing motivation theories – Maslow, Herzberg, MacKeland, Vroom and others - as long ago as in the first half of the twentieth century gave us some means to understand ourselves and our own motives, as well as to allow a person, on their own, to monitor the dynamics of their needs and goals throughout the years. Our contemporaries – R. Shrenger, A. Beckmann, K. Kobyoll, who support their predecessors, focused even more attention on the emotional component of self-motivation, the need for everyone to consciously control their motivation, to pay great attention to their emotional mood, to control it and maintain its vitality.

Self-motivation is now considered to be a part of the social intelligence of a person (Ilyin E.P., Maslow A.). It is defined by how quickly a person can adapt to rapidly changing situation, whether their self-realization in the society is possible etc. Social intelligence today, as Ilyin E.P. considers, is in some respects more valuable than general intelligence, since people with high social intelligence, as sociologists point out, make their career much more rapidly [1].

In the situation when market requires entrepreneurial personality with quick thinking, flexibility etc., it is self-motivation that becomes an instrument for professional self-promotion and public success. As for motives, they may be different: interest, self-expression of a personality, professional opportunities, acquisition of experience and others. However, studies show that they are closely related to the needs of the individual. In the chain: NECCESSITY → MOTIVE → PURPOSE the achievement of the purpose is nothing more than satisfaction of the need. Motivation is in the intermediate position between the need and the goal. It is the model of behavior that we choose to reach the goal. However, the inability to achieve the goal also affects motivation, which proves the interrelationship of all elements of the chain. Thus it can be stated that motivation is a variable that is defined by both personal goals of an individual and the external factors.

Hence the ability to control one’s own motivation is of great importance. The basic principles of controlling self-motivation are: a conscious choice, positive thinking, a clear goal, the support of like-minded people. Self-motivation of modern specialists is aimed primarily at improving themselves as personalities, increasing professionalism, the development of their abilities (competences). The researchers have revealed the most typical motivators concerning three spheres of relations (the attitude to life, to people and to themselves) and showing what a person can strive for to improve themselves. Material well-being and self-realization as the main goals are more important for students.

The stability of motivation of self-development depends on the stability of images of ideal persons, ideal “ego” and the stability of self-assessment. As a result of self-assessment individuals reveal their own shortcomings, which, as L.I. Ruvinsky and A.E. Soloviova (1982) point out, may be of different nature. On the one hand, a shortcoming may be understood by a person as lagging behind the normal development of a positive quality. On the other hand, it may be understood as a gap between the level of development of a positive quality and the best of his ideal. In this case, the shortcoming is visible to others and therefore it is only by the initiative of the individual that his own self-development can be encouraged. There may be cases when a shortcoming is understood as the presence of a negative quality. And then self-education is, in fact, re-education due to the breaking down of old negative stereotypes, inner conflict of the personality (“the struggle of motivators”).

The efficiency of self-improvement depends on the stability of self-assessment. The instability of self-assessment is caused by the spontaneity, discrepancy of the results achieved in this or that activity.

This does not lead to the orderly and systematic self-improvement based on long-term purpose, but it leads to self-correction of actions, results, that is, to situational behavior based on short-term motives, therefore the stability of motivational purpose can be kept through the regulation of the level of self-assessment [2].

Thus, all the above brings us to believe that specialists’ training based on their own experience plays a principal part in the life of a modern specialist. In this case two ways are possible for a person to reach their goal. One way is to adopt the views of other people, make them your own views (to adapt them to yourself) and apply them. This is the way of the instruction. The other way of the personal development is to acquire one’s own experience and interpret it. A person is supposed to acquire new insights and knowledge. This is the way of discoveries. Only a specialist who can make use of the technologies of self-motivation and self-management, who has the skills of self-presentation and self-promotion in the professional field, can follow this way.

Speaking about today’s realities in education it can be stated that the traditional system of authoritarian education based on the transmission and reproduction of information is not only incapable to form in a student necessary skills, flexibility, independence, etc., but in a sense prevents them from forming, affirming and consolidating a stereotyped thinking and blocking the creative search. To solve this problem self-motivation is sure to be formed in future specialists to develop skills of independent and collective work aimed to obtain new knowledge, to critically evaluate the available information and search for new information, to gain the experience of independent decision making while solving the problem. In fact, there arose a necessity to use new approaches in training specialists based on the development of personal and professional skills for further successful self-realization in their career and social life.

References

1. Ильин, Е.П. Мотивация и мотивы. СПб.: Питер, 2003. – 512 с.

2. Шипунов, В,Г,, Кишкель, Е.Н. Основы управленческой деятельности. М.: Смысл, 2000. – 359 с.