Leader-Employee Relationship Management - Literature review Example

?Literature Review An organisation is consisted of several individuals who play important roles in the activities related to the required output by adhering to the goals and objectives of the organisation. The most important elements in the organisation include people as well as the communication among them. Though every organisation possesses its own unique culture usually formed by the founding management of the organisation, it may get altered by the behaviour groups and individuals within the organisation. “Organisations with meaningful interpersonal communication may achieve a better shared definition of the organisation and hence a better communication environment” (Cameron & McCollum, 1993, p.6). Organisation works as a purposeful collection of people brought together to reach a desired outcome, that is, to achieve the organisational objectives (Kaliski, 2001, p.445). The outcome of the activity may vary from providing a service to producing a product or accumulation of wealth. The process for achieving the goals requires the organisations to formulate various strategies that determine the reporting, task allocation, coordination, and interaction techniques. The foundational values and behaviours are carried along with the development of the organisation, and these elements later turn out to be the cultural effects of the organisation. The culture of an organisation decides how the organisation is going to operate in its business environment, and also about the desired objectives. Therefore understanding the organisational behaviour enables a person to understand the organisational behaviour better. It also helps in analysing the role of employee in the organisational culture. Organisational behaviour has been a well studied subject over the years by student, researchers, and mainly by organisational managements, as a general theory and scholarly research in organisational management. A research on organisational behaviour is applicable both to the business concern as well as to the goal-directed organisations in general. From 1960 onwards, the researches on organisational behaviour have been seen diverting from studying the traditional generalized principle of “what business was doing yesterday or the day before” into a more comprehensive and intuitive approaches of study. Humans are the most valuable assets of an organisation, without them it cannot carry out its everyday business function (Kaliski, 2001, p.445). Therefore, the human resource managers are often asked to find the most effective methods to motivate the employees in their work to achieve the maximum job satisfaction. Organisational behaviour makes use of the information and interprets the findings for the purpose of canalising the behaviour of an individual and the group into an expected result. Achievement of the organisational as well as individual goals depends on the two basic elements; performance of the employees and job satisfaction. Therefore, organisations, in this competitive world, must focus on growth-oriented operations. Organisational behaviour is a comprehensive area that integrates several behavioural sciences such as sociology, psychology, economics, etc in order to find out the extent to which human behaviour contributes to the organisational growth and greater efficiency. Modern organisations, regardless of their size or nature, emphasise on HR as their major focus of strategic interest. The exceeding significance on this area is attributed to numerous motivational theories which brought forth the idea that employees’ level of performance is highly associated with their level of motivation. As the employees’ perspectives on reward vary, it will be unfair if an organization designs its reward system solely based on fiscal aspects. Usually the reward devise in an organisation is influenced by the managers’ performance assessment. One might admit that there are various factors which disturb the performance-reward equation. For instance, the quality of leadership and organisational structure are highly significant when manager estimates the potentiality of an individual. So, in order to ensure employee satisfaction, the team that designs the incentives and reward must consider different individual perspectives and factors that would eventually contribute to the accomplishment of goal. Although there is no unanimous opinion among the researchers about the elements that influence one’s motivation, the concept “A happy worker is a productive worker” seems to be the crucial aspect of every motivational theory; and “the job satisfaction is a psychological concept related to job related attitudes and behaviours” (Job Satisfaction and Motivation). . The manpower resources in an organisation is directly associated with the motivation. The human resource managers should always opt for the most suitable motivational strategies while facing with several business consequences. Such motivational theories have greater impact on the employee morale, which in turn can enable the organisation in attaining efficiency in productivity. The manpower must be motivated effectively to achieve the maximum production. If the employees are well motivated, then the organisation can overcome the problem of high employee turnovers. “Expectancy theory states that motivation is a combined function of the individual’s perception that will lead to performance and of the perceived desirability of outcomes that may result from the performance” (Ramlall, 2004, p.56). Maslow in his theory explains the five phases of needs that affects a person’s behaviour are basic needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem needs and self actualization (Abraham Maslow, 1943). He continues that, the first level of human needs must be satisfied at first in order to motivate the employees. Again, if the organisation is able to meet the psychological needs of the employees, the employees feel much more satisfied with their current job. He explains that the psychological needs of an employee can be fully satisfied by providing him with fair wages and incentives, safety needs such as job security and proper working conditions, social needs such as enhanced work environment, self-esteem needs like enabling to work with other members of the staff efficiently and the self-actualization needs which makes the employee to utilize his full potential. A business organisation should always consider the possibility of promotion as a probable opportunity for employee satisfaction (Abraham Maslow, 1943). However, Herzberg categorized the motivation element into two factors, such as motivators and hygiene’s (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman 1959). The motivation factor in this theory consists of achievements and appreciations that are enabling the maximum job satisfaction to the employees. On the other hand, the Hygiene element provides the important needs like adequate pay, proper job security, and higher job satisfaction. This theory of motivation concentrates on the fact that whether the hygiene factor like pay and job security have impact on job satisfaction and if they can create job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. His conclusion states that, yet there are some motivating factors that have the ability to increase job satisfaction, such as, by providing staff recognition, accountability and achievements. On analyzing the various theories on motivation, the expectancy theory of motivation focuses on the expected outcomes and human needs. In their theory, Herzberg and Maslow analyzed the relationship between internal needs and the effort which is expended to fulfil. On the other hand, Victor Vroom in his theory on motivation links the elements like effort, performance, and motivation with the effects on a person feeling motivated. So making the employees happy and satisfied with their profession will make the organisation work smoothly. The organisational behaviour can be enhanced by motivating the employees so that they will have greater morale and better work productivity. The organisational culture also influences the employee motivation and job satisfaction of employees. Obviously, all motivational theories have contributed to the growth of HRM as the most important concern of entrepreneurship in the current business world. No theory can be left out for its insignificance; instead managers can incorporate the relevant aspects of various theories into their strategies in order to ensure employee motivation and thereby enhanced productivity. References Cameron & McCollum. (1993). Leader-Employee Relationship Management. McCown, N. D. (2008). The Roles of Internal Public Relations, Leadership Style, and Workplace Spirituality in Building Leader-Employee Relationships and Facilitating Relational Outcomes. USA: ProQuest. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B & Snyderman, B. B. (1959). The Motivation to Work. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Job satisfaction and motivation: Understanding its impact on employee commitment and Organisational performance. (2011). Academic Leadership: The Online Journal, 9(2), Retrieved from http://www.academicleadership.org/article/job-satisfaction-and-motivation-understanding-its-impact-on-employee-commitment-and-organisational-performance Kaliski, B. (2001). Encyclopedia of business and finance. USA: Macmillan Reference. Maslow, A. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-396. Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rev/50/4/370/ Ramlall, S. (2004). A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organisations. Journals of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 52-63. Retrieved from ftp://ftp.cba.uri.edu/Classes/Beauvais/HPR412/Ramlall_2004.pdf Read More