OB Dimensions of Motivation, Team Work and Organizational Structure - Case Study Example

OB DIMENSIONS OF MOTIVATION, TEAM WORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Motivation as a concept While the term of motive means the move, it explains the behavior to commit something and it arouses individual to an action, directs one’s behavior and engages into the certain activities. Within the organizational environment, motivation assists in pursuing certain business goals of employees and employers and persists in their decision in doing tasks (Cheng & Yeh, 2009). Motivation is considered as both extrinsic and intrinsic concept, which is affected by situation or the stimulus, the internal state, the purpose of behavior and the tools that help to reach the goal (Pakdel, 2013). Usually the extrinsic phenomenon is composed of the tangible rewards such as pay, bonuses and benefits that stimulate employees to perform their tasks in exchange to their skills and abilities. The intrinsic reward is about how people perform their tasks to the greatest ability which is based in the own initiative. For employees, motivation strives to reach the best performance within every set of tasks where individuals will enjoy the continual challenge of their results and care at the same time about the peers and the company’s outcomes. As Petri and Govern (2012) explain the concept of motivation, it is something that triggers behavior in the certain way and which is useful when it enhances the ability to realize the predict behavior. However, within the organization, it is the performance of presenting the need to capture certain task with the power to give the route to behavior and assure the targets through physiological or psychological want. Despite the rewards, motivation is what determines the efficiency of organization and without motivated employees, its resources and facilities will be wasted. However, it is up to the organization to measure the motivation of its employees which is possible by applying the goal-related concepts. The greater the motivation to reach the goal, the more likely employees will remember and recognize concepts and people related to that goal (Toure-Tillery & Fishbach, 2014). Teamwork as a concept Whenever the employees are highly motivated to accomplish their tasks at work, the other important feature that brings effectiveness to the organization is the team, as it expands the outputs of people through their collaboration and helps an organization to achieve its targets (Manzoorm, HafizUllah, Hussain & Ahmad, 2011). Under the concept of teamwork there is the gathering of people who perform organizational tasks and by sharing one or more common goals interact with each other exhibiting tasks and embedding in the organizational context. It is worth mentioning that all teams differ by their membership and types of teams, their demands and functioning (Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp & Gilson, 2008). Moreover, the team members are able to increase the skills, knowledge and the abilities while working together. Organizations at the same time increase employees’ performance and greater productivity as well as problem solving among teams. In addition, self-management teams and those with the interpersonal skills constitute the most important factors that increase the communication and relationship between the team members and enhance their performance (Cohen & Bailey, 1996). Such good relationship cannot be established without the trust that is the main predisposition for performance effectiveness; hence, trust among the members of team is essential. Another important point is the ability of managers to recognize the individuals among the teams and reward them in order to increase the collective strength. Delarue, Hootegem, Procter and Burridge (2008) represent the link between the teamwork and the performance, where teamwork as a work practice and a division of labor leads to the job satisfaction, involvement of employees and people’s commitment. It also brings less complexity and reduces losses. From the behavioral point of view, teamwork decreases employees’ turnover and absenteeism and pays more attention to the extra role behavior. For an organization, teamwork means that higher level of productivity and quality of work will be done, as different perspectives to one and the same task will be given. Organization as a concept The formation of an organization is connected with the will of group of people to promote common goals and achieve effects that a single individual cannot obtain. However, to reach successful and profitable goals, there is a need to create inner order and relations among the involved individuals so that an organization could fulfill all its targets. This is how organizational structure is formed, according to Tran and Tian (2013). While organizations may be influenced by many factors of the business environment, they have to be able to operate within the uncertainty, rely on the formal rules and policies and adjust their performance to the other business environments. These factors can be as external with the economic situations, socio-economic factors, political and administrative options and legal boundaries. Under the internal factors one can call the mission statement of an organization and its organizational instruments. While the external factors are able to impact the organization with its good and negative patterns, the internal environment is controlled by an organization itself where it strives so that its employees moved in the same direction and established more tasks using effective resources and responsibilities (Latif, Baloch & Khan, n.d.). Here there is a great importance of organizational structure as it gets people work toward achieving goals and act as facilitators in promoting goals and objectives of an organization. Moreover, good structure promotes and cultivates cultural values, integration and coordination while employees perform their duties. There is an important aspect of an organization to follow certain arrangement that is its strategy (Baligh, 2006). Motivation concept in the Emirates Group Employees of most UAE companies define work and life balance as the most important motivation in addition to the possibility to be recognized for their work and achievements, have an opportunity to train and develop their personal and professional skills, and the opportunity for career advancement (Work-life balance most motivating factor for employees in UAE, 2014). Being an intrinsic phenomenon, motivation within such UAE companies as Emirates Group, an international aviation holding company, is supported by numerous initiatives that are aimed to retain quality employees and thus increase productivity and morale within the company. According to the official website of Emirate Group, it employs more than sixty thousand people across its fifty business units and associated firms (Our company, 2015). As a part of its vision and values, the Emirate Group believes its business ethics is the basis for the success of the company, where caring about employees and stakeholders is of great importance for the company. Thus, the global business provides an opportunity of training to all operational employees by rolling out its Behavioral Accident Prevention Process in order to emphasis the importance of behavior when they establish safety during their work. Another motivation for employees is the group staff recognition by the company’s Chairman and CEO. It also defined the contribution plan under which the company pays fixed contributions to the employees which motivates them greatly (Keeping a steady compass, 2015). In order to motivate its employees, the Emirates Airlines as the part Emirates Group provides their flight attendants opportunities for professional development and growth, which also give them a possibility to become independent and confident in the future. Under the personal circumstances of an individuals working at Emirates Group, the company supports its employees financially to pay for the core tuition fee to staff. Teamwork in the Emirates Group   Within the Emirates Group the teamwork is not represented in the words only, but through collaborative means of all its members, which are the leadership team and those who provide services to numerous customers of the company. Moreover, there will be no success in customer-centric services, innovation and investing if there was no good team. Such teamwork can be represented in the HR teams, whose collaboration with the employees allowed obtaining the world-class training for its people and provide training opportunities for them (Keeping a steady compass, 2015). The Group Learning and Development team has also provided additional opportunities for the company employees, training more than fifty thousand staff. According to Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp and Gilson (2008), there is a great positive impact of teams within an organization as they increase the level of productivity of the organization. Thus, in Emirates Group commercial teams work hard in order to allow the company to adjust its operations to the dynamic marketplace. As a global air services provider, Emirates Group teams strive to deliver excellent results, promoting fundamental values of safety, efficiency and satisfaction of consumers. The staff teams ensure so the promises of delivering excellent services were met by the customers as well. As a part of company’s task to nurture teams, there are many benefits that assist permanent employees through Remuneration Policy that is focused on developing benefits for the teams. Only these teams are able to ensure the company to remain competitive within the market and attract and retain more talents. Organization structure in the Emirates Group The organization of Emirates Groups is affected by such external factors as economic situations of the countries where it operates, as well as administrative and political boundaries. With the growth of business, its impact on the economies of different areas increased, providing more people with the job and contributing to the economies of numerous countries. The internal factors of an organization are its values, strategy and goals, achievement of which guarantees company’s success. Along with this, its strong mission statement ensures the company to move in the right direction and helps to build new way to deliver excellent services worldwide. According to the Environmental Report (2011), the corporate strategy of the Emirates Group enables the company to set values of open global economy where free and fair trade is vital and economic growth and employment lead to the commitment of the true international competition. The company creates employment and value through the services that it procures from its partners. It invests in the efficient fleet and network of routes. A competitive strategy of Emirates Group organization depends on the level of its employees, which are its strongest asset. Thus, an organization is built to nurture its employees in order to bring more positive outcome and results from their commitment. Suggestions for improvement Whether all organizations are concerned about how to achieve sustained high levels of organizational performance, there is a great importance in understanding what motivates people within certain business (Jiang, 2010). Here the role of Human Resource Management is great and requires organization to make sure of pursuing high work efficiency and the same high level of performance. Within the Emirates Group, there are already present such instruments for improvement of employees motivation, such as effective leadership, trust and ongoing learning. However, certain recommendations as to the increasing of motivation can be added. In particular, the company should follow the 360-degree feedback, empower its employees to contribution and team-based rewards. Training in teams will be also effective in the form of formal and systematic modification of behavior necessary for tasks completion. While Jiang (2010) considers skill-based teamwork is able to create the ongoing learning culture, each team member should be encouraged to be learned within the team. Moreover, training needs will give more equal opportunities to each team member. Another recommendation to the Emirates Group performance can be mixed reward system applied to increase motivation and teamwork. If company recognizes the teamwork with the tangible rewards, it will become more productive and will be able to motivate its employees and retain them. Effective improvement can be achieved through involvement of all employees in the development and implementation of reward systems, where these rewards will be seen as worth efforts. There is an effective means to challenge employees, because it helps them to grow, test their knowledge and skills and stretch abilities. In order to improve teamwork, Emirates Group can incorporate team-based issues solving in the meeting of staff where each member of the team will be able to share the task or be challenged to find own solution. There is a need to listen to employees’ comments and questions as a part of team, because good ideas improve the overall striving to achieve common goal. Despite the size of an organization, its type of operations and organizational structure, it is vital for a business to develop the most comfortable atmosphere where employees, its main asset, would be satisfied and would cooperate with each other effectively. This way workforce will be able to use their full potential for contribution of the common goals. That is why, improvements in terms of employees’ motivation and teamwork as well as organization of the business are essential. They will not only increase team trust in company’s ability to reward and recognize the performance, but will enhance the overall employees’ performance and thus company’s productivity. The role of ongoing training and learning cannot be underestimated. 360-degree feedback will enable the company to see what needs to be improved and where are its strengths. Mixed reward system will provide more employees with certain feedback and increase their confidence in tasks completion. During the staff meeting issues that appeared within the team can be solved in the more friendly manner and help the team to understand the problems. Conclusion As motivation is able to inspire and encourage employees and teams to achieve organizational goals, there is a great need for businesses to ensure so the staff would work within the good organizational environment and was cared about with initiatives and benefits. Knowing the right instruments that help employees to work better and want to contribute more is the main task of the modern companies in their striving to attract and retain qualified specialists. Highly motivated people gathered in the efficient teams are capable to bring better results to an organization. With the well-organized teamwork and a variety of possibilities inside the company, employees will be motivated enough to meet the needs of an organization and achieve its goals and objectives. As Emirates Group strives to remain on the competitive edge, it is important to provide its employees with all means that would increase their motivation and as a result enhance company’s success. References Baligh, H., (2006). Organization Structures: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription, Springer Science & Business Media Cheng, Y. and Yeh, H-T., (2009). From concepts of motivation to its application in instructional design: Reconsidering motivation from an instructional design perspective, British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol 40 No 4, 597–605 Cohen, S. and Bailey, D., (1996). What makes teams work: group effectiveness research from the shop floor to the executive suite, Center of effective organizations, Journal of management, Vol.23, N.3 Delarue, A., Hootegem, G., Procter, S. and Burridge, M., (2008). Teamworking and organizational performance: a review of survey-based research, International journal of management reviews Environmental Report, (2011). The official website for Emirates Group, Retrieved from http://www.emirates.com/english/images/The%20Emirates%20Group%20Environment%20Report_tcm233-701728.pdf Jiang, X., (2010). How to motivate people working in teams, International journal of business and management, Vol.5, No.10 Keeping a steady compass, (2015). Annual report, Official website for Emirates Group Latif, K., Baloch, Q. and Khan, M., (n.d.). Structure, Corporate Strategy and the Overall Effectiveness of the Organisation, Abasyn Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 5 No. 2 Mathieu, J., Maynard, T., Rapp, T. and Gilson, L., (2008). Team Effectiveness 1997-2007: A Review of Recent Advancements and a Glimpse into the Future, Journal of Management, Vol. 34 No. 3 Manzoorm, S., HafizUllah, Hussain, M. and Ahmad, Z., (2011). Effect of Teamwork on Employee Performance, International Journal of Learning & Development, Vol. 1, No. 1 Our company, (2015). The official website for Emirates Group, Retrieved from http://www.theemiratesgroup.com/english/our-company/our-company.aspx Pakdel, B., (2013). The Historical Context of Motivation and Analysis Theories Individual Motivation, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol. 3 No. 18 Petri, H. and Govern, J., (2012). Motivation: Theory, Research, and Application, Cengage Learning Toure-Tillery, M. and Fishbach, A., (2014). How to Measure Motivation: A Guide for the Experimental Social Psychologist, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 8/7: 328–341 Tran, Q. and Tian, Y., (2013). Organizational Structure: Influencing Factors and Impact on a Firm, American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 3, 229-236 Work-life balance most motivating factor for employees in UAE, (2014). Eemirates247 magazine, Retrieved from http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/work-life-balance-most-motivating-factor-for-employees-in-uae-2013-01-08-1.490305 Read More