Leadership and motivation creative writings example

Leadership and motivation go hand in hand in establishing a successful business and the type of leadership style applied in an organization is an essential factor in motivation employees in a workplace. This is essentially because of the relationship that exists between the leader and the employees in all levels of the organization as well at the communication methods used between the leader and the employees. As seen in the case of Lenthall Furniture Company, the owner had established authoritarian leadership style where all the business operations had to be performed according to his orders.
In addition, he was solely responsible for making all the company decision from manufacturing, human resources and negotiations with the suppliers of the raw materials, a process that had made the productivity of the company to lag behind especially due to the out fashioned furniture that the company is producing. This has negative impacts on the company where there are no innovations to keep up with the current furniture designs hence leading to low sales and reduced workers’ motivation to work.

Impacts of Authoritarian leadership style

Autocratic leadership style has adverse impacts on employees’ motivation to work. One of the impacts of this style is a stressful working environment. Employees are expected to adjust their work schedule, skills and expertise in order to do what their leaders want regardless of whether the design is inappropriate or do not match the current market needs. The autocratic leader thinks that their decisions and ideas are always right and employees have to be pushed in order to perform their respective tasks. This as a result may end up lowering the employees’ motivation since they are restricted from contributing their opinions in improving the quality of the company’s products and services. In addition, autocratic leaders expects high returns from the employee with little or no rewards, employees have cope with the pressure hence creating a stressful working environment which is likely to result in low productivity. This is seen in Lenthall Company whereby the truck drivers are exposed to long working hours with no reward since that is the employer’s orders and yet they need some time to be with their families.
Another impact of autocratic leadership is reduced commitment by the employees in their respective tasks. Employees will only be productive when the leader is around to monitor the operations while when they are alone, employees focus more on solving their social issues hence lowering the company’s productivity. Lack of commitment is also stimulated by denying the employees a chance to exercise their responsibilities in their respective work stations (Robbins, 428). As seen in Lenthall Company, the owner was liable to making all decisions concerning all the departments hence the managers in these respective departments did not have the opportunity to exercise their duties as managers. This makes them to be less committed in improving productivity in their respective areas.

Suitable leadership style for change

In bringing a change in Lenthall Company where the employees are motivated in their working environment, Ms. Witty need to adopt a leadership style that promotes flexibility by involving all the employees in decision making process on various aspects of the company. In this case, democratic or participative leadership style is a recommendable style that Ms. Witty can emulate to bring a change the current situation in this company. According to Hackman and Johnson (290), democratic leaders involve their teams in decision making process whereby all important aspects involving the organizational change and development have to be influenced by the employees’ views and opinions. This form of leadership also promotes employees satisfaction as they are encouraged to present their opinions in decision making on what need to be done hence promoting a sense of belonging which is an essential factor in employee motivation. It also involves distribution of responsibilities to heads of departments, an issue that Ms. Witty’s father had deprived to his employees.
Various motivation theories can be used to describe the way Witty’s father motivated his employees to work and how she can change to a different motivational strategy to bring a change to the current situation. As seen by the previous decision making process and form of leadership style, he applied McGregor’s theory X which motivates employees through monetary reward and punishment. This theory assumes that employees have to be closely supervised and have to be pushed around in order to be productive (Robbins, 234). The theory also assumes that employees prefer to be told what to do and they are likely to avoid responsibilities. In addition, an employee will only be willing to work hard if they receive monetary rewards as seen in Lenthall Company.
This theory as McGregor states relies on satisfaction of lower basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs through provision of monetary reward while the leader pays little attention to higher needs such as esteem needs and self actualization which are the key factors to employee motivation. Failure to consider other employee needs and focusing more on monetary rewards and low employee involvement in decision making process are the key factors that made the motivational strategy ineffective.

Theories of motivation

Applying theories of motivation as a way of improving productivity in Lenthall Company requires a quiet evaluation of the employees’ needs and expectations. Some of the applicable theories that can be applied in this company as a result of the current situation Herzberg’s two factor theory. This theory states that in an organization, there are certain factors that cause job satisfaction while hygiene factors cause dissatisfaction if not considered (Robbins, 243). Motivator factors that Ms. Witty should consider includes recognition of employees’ efforts, allocation of responsibilities and assigning challenging work to employees that ensure their personal growth. Hygiene factors on the other hand include job security, retirement and fringe benefits and favorable working conditions which is influenced by extrinsic factors such as flexible supervision, company policies and recommended working hours.
Vroom’s Expectancy theory of motivation can also be applied in motivating employees in this case. This theory tries to explain why individuals at workplace choose adopt one form of behavior over the other. It is determined by three essential factors; expectancy, instrumentality and valence. In order to motivate the employees, she has to improve the employees’ ability to work and believe that their efforts will lead to the expected results by offering employee training, provision of necessary equipments and giving the employees a chance to make decisions and have control of their jobs (Champoux, 384) . Improving instrumentality on the other hand involves rewarding the employees for their efforts through recognition, rewarding employees for their performance and building trust between employees and management. Valence involves giving an award that is of value to the employee. Initially, the only reward policy in Lenthall is in form of monetary while some employees may have different expectations such as promotion, recognition, or a paid leave so as to spend time with their families. This factor will be achieved through interaction with the employees and ask them what they want as a reward for their recommendable job.
In comparing the motivational strategies applied by Ms. Witty and that of her father, both strategies have rewards for good performance. However Ms. Witty’s strategy involves a variety form of rewards in terms of its value and meaning to the respective employee which includes pay rise, promotion, recognition paid leave among other needs while the latter only involved monetary rewards which are only gained if a person is willing to work overtime. Another difference is the control power of the employees. While Ms. Witty’s strategies involves giving the supervisors and employees a sense of control of their respective duties and tasks thus promoting creativity and innovation by the employees, her father’s strategy involve close supervision whereby employee have to do exactly as they are told thus have no chance of contributing in decision making process. Also, Theory X that is applied by the father assumes that the leader is the sole decision maker and he has to be feared while in the latter every employee’s opinion is important and trust is essential between the employees and the employer for them to feel motivated towards achieving a common goal.
Achieving a working environment where employees are motivated to carry out their tasks is difficult and this requires effort of a motivated leader to influence workers through effective communication, enhancement through training, varied reward system, allocation of responsibilities and promoting flexibility to changes. Applying democratic leadership style and adopting motivational strategies that appreciate innovation and thrive to satisfy workers’ needs is suitable in bringing a change in a company where the employees have suffered from a long time of job dissatisfaction.

Works Cited

Beck, Robert, C. Motivation: theories and principles. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004.
Champoux, Joseph. Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups, and Organizations, 4th Ed. NY: Taylor & Francis, 2010.
Griffin, Ricky & Moorehead, Gregory. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organisations. NY: Cengage Learning, 2009.
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. Leadership: A Communication Perspective (5th ed.). Long Grove, IL, Waveland Press, 2009.
Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational Behavior – Concepts, Controversies, Applications. 4th Ed. Prentice Hall, 2004.