It is a relationship through which one person influences the behavior or actions of other people. A leader must have followers. Leaders create a vision and then communicate the vision to his followers. Leader energies, inspire and motivate others to translate the vision into achievement. A good leader must have qualities, personality, characteristics or ‘ traits’. Leadership traits include personal magnetism or charisma (gift from GOD), interpersonal skills, analytical thinking, imagination, decisiveness, trustworthiness, persuasiveness, self motivation, flexibility and vision. There are some styles of leadership:
Autocratic:
The manager makes all the decisions and issues instructions which must be obeyed without question.
Advantages:
Quick decisions can be made when speed is required
It is most efficient type of leadership for highly programmed, routine work
Disadvantages:
Communication between the manager and subordinate will be one way. There may be lack of helpful feedback
It does not encourage contribution or initiative from subordinates
Persuasive:
The manger still makes all the decisions, but explains them to subordinates, and attempts to motivate subordinates to carry them out willingly.
Advantages:
Selling decisions to staff might make them more willing
Staff will have a better idea of what to do when unforeseen events arise in their work, because the manager will have explained his intensions.
Disadvantages:
Subordinates will not necessarily be committed to decisions in which they have not been involved
There is no contribution or feedback of subordinates
Democratic:
Leader and followers make the decision together, on the basis of consensus, or compromise and agreement.
Advantages:
It can provide high commitment to the decision reached
It takes advantage of the knowledge and expertise of individuals in different areas, for high quality, flexible decision making
Disadvantages:
The authority of the manager might be undermined
Decision making might become a very long process
Clear cut decisions might be difficult to reach
Participative:
The manager confers with subordinates and takes their views and feelings into account, but retains the right to make the final decision.
Advantages:
Employees are involved in decisions. This encourages motivation through greater interest and involvement.
Employees can contribute knowledge and experience, to help in solving problems related to their work.
Disadvantages:
it might take longer to reach decisions
subordinates might be limited in their viewpoint on organizational issues
if the manager does not take employees advice, they might perceive the process to be meaningless
P7: explain the different motivational theories and their application within the workplace
Motivation:
Motivation is the driving force which causes us to achieve goals. Motivation may be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less apparent reasons such as altruism, selfishness, morality, or avoiding mortality.
F. W. Taylor:
Taylor made the first serious attempt to analyze worker motivation in order to advise management on the best ways to increase worker performance or productivity. The techniques he used of establishing an idea or an hypothesis, studying and recording performance at work, altering working methods and re-recording performance are still used in modern industry. This approach has become known as ‘ scientific management’ due to the detailed recording and analysis of results that it involved. His main aim was to reduce the level of inefficiency that existed in the US manufacturing industry. The scope for efficiency gains in early twentieth century manufacturing plants was huge. The vast mass of workers were untrained and non-specialized. They were poorly led by supervisors and managers with little or no formal training in dealing with people. There was usually no formal selection or appraisal system of staff and many were recruited on a daily or weekly basis with no security of employment.
How to improve productivity (Taylor’s scientific approach):
Select workers to perform a task.
Observe them performing the task and note the key elements of it.
Record the time taken to do each part of the task.
Identify the quickest method recorded.
Train all workers in this quickest method and do not allow them to make any changes in it.
Supervise workers to ensure that this ‘ best way’ is being carried out and to time them to check that the set time is not being exceeded.
Pay workers on the basis of results (based on the theory of economic man)
The theory of ‘ economic man’ was widely held, and Taylor himself supported this notion. The view was that man was driven or motivated by money alone and the only factor that could stimulate further effort was the chance of earning extra money. He always maintained that workers should be paid a ‘ fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work’ and that the amount should be directly linked up to output through a system known as ‘ piece rate’. This means paying workers a certain amount for each unit produced. To encourage high output a low rate per unit can be set for the first units produced and then higher rates become payable if output targets are exceeded.
Elton Mayo:
Elton Mayo is best known for his ‘ Hawthorne Effect’ conclusions. These were based on a series of experiments he and his team conducted over a five year period at the Hawthorne factory of Western Electric Co. in Chicago. His work was initially based on the assumption that working conditions (lightning, heating, rest periods and so on) had a scientific effect on workers’ productivity. Experiments were undertaken to establish the optimum working conditions at all. The results surprised all observers, as lightning and all other conditions were changed, both improved and worsened, so productivity rose in all groups including the control group. This forced Mayo to accept that:
Working conditions in themselves were not that important in determining productivity levels
Other motivational factors needed to be investigated further before conclusions could be drawn.
Subsequent experiments were carried out with a group of assembly line workers. Changes to rest periods, payment systems, assembly bench layout and canteen food were made at twelve week intervals. Crucially, before every major change, the researchers discussed the new changes with the work group. At the end of the experiments the working conditions and work hours were returned to how they had been before the start of the trial. Output rose far above the original level.
Maslow hierarchy theory:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943. Then in 1954 this theory was fully expressed in his book Motivation and Personality. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top. The most fundamental and basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called ‘ deficiency needs’ or ‘ d-needs’: esteem , friendship and love, security, and physical needs. With the exception of the most fundamental (physiological) needs, if these ‘ deficiency needs’ are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense. Maslow’s theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom:
This hierarchy was interpreted by Maslow as follows:
individuals’ needs start on the lowest level
once one level of need has been satisfied, humans will strive to achieve the next level
self-actualization or self-fulfillment is not reached by many people but everyone is capable of reaching their potential
once a need has been satisfied it will no longer motivate individuals to action, thus when material needs have been satisfied the offer of more money will not increase productivity
Herzberg and the ‘ Two factor theory’:
Despite basing his research on just 200 professionally qualified workers, Herzberg’s conclusions and famous two factor theory have had the greatest impact on motivational practices since Taylor’s work almost 60 years earliest. His research was based around questionnaires and interviews with employees with the intension of discovering:
those factors that led to them having very good feelings about their jobs and
those factors that led to them having very negative feelings about their jobs.
His conclusions were that:
Job satisfaction resulted from five main factors: achievement, recognition for achievement, the work itself, responsibility and advancement. He called these factors the ‘ motivators’. He considered the last three to be the most significant.
Job dissatisfaction resulted from five different factors: company policy and administration, supervision, salary, relationships with others and working conditions. He termed these ‘ hygiene factors’. These were the factors that surround the job itself (extrinsic factors) rather than the work itself (intrinsic factors).
Herzberg considered that the hygiene factors had to be addressed by management to prevent dissatisfaction, but even if they were in place they would not, by themselves, create a well-motivated workforce.
Vroom’s theory:
Vroom’s theory assumes that behavior results from conscious choices among alternatives whose purpose it is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. The key elements to this theory are referred to as Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valence.
The Expectancy Theory of Victor Vroom deals with motivation and management. Vroom’s theory assumes that behavior results from conscious choices among alternatives whose purpose it is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Together with Edward Lawler and Lyman Porter, Vroom suggested that the relationship between people’s behavior at work and their goals was not as simple as was first imagined by other scientists. Vroom realized that an employee’s performance is based on individuals’ factors such as personality, skills, knowledge, experience and abilities. The expectancy theory says that individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they believe that:
There is a positive correlation between efforts and performance,
Favorable performance will result in a desirable reward,
The reward will satisfy an important need,
The desire to satisfy the need is strong enough to make the effort worthwhile.
P8: Assess the relationship between motivation theory and the practice of management.
Payment or financial reward system:
Hourly wage rate:
This is the most common way of paying manual, clerical and ‘ non-management workers’. An hourly ‘ time rate’ is set for the job – perhaps by comparing with other firms or similar jobs – and the wage level is determined by multiplying this by the number of hours worked. This total is usually paid weekly.
Piece rate:
A rate is fixed for the production of each unit, and the workers’ wages therefore depend on the quantity of output produced. The piece rate can be adjusted to reflect the difficulty of the job and the ‘ standard’ time needed to complete it. These issues are determined by work study. The level of the rate can be very important. If set too low it could demotivate the workers but if too high it could reduce the incentives, because workers will be able to meet their target wage level by producing relatively few units.
Salary:
This is an annual sum that is usually paid on a monthly basis. It is the most common form of payment for professional, supervisory and management staff. The salary level is fixed each year and it is not dependent on the number of hours worked (time rate) or the number of units produced (piece rate). The fixing of the salary level for each job is a very important process because it helps to determine the status of that post in the whole organization. Job evaluation techniques may be used to assist in deciding the salary bands and the differences between them. In most organizations, all jobs will be put into one of a number of salary bands and the precise income earned within each band will depend upon experience and progress. It is always possible to gain promotion to another job in a higher salary band. Firms that are interested in creating a ‘ single status’ within their organization are now increasingly putting all staff – manual and managerial – on to annual salaries to give the benefits of security and status to all employees.
Example of salary bands:
Job grade
Salary band (per year)
Regional heads
Rs. 100000 – Rs. 200000
Departmental heads
Rs. 50000 – Rs. 75000
Office managers
Rs. 30000 – Rs. 40000
Secretaries
Rs. 15000 – Rs. 25000
Junior clerical staff
Rs. 5000 – Rs. 10000
