Principles of Management: Motivational Theories - Research Paper Example

Running Head: Principles of Management Motivational Theories Motivation The term motivation possesses something in itself, according to Robbins motivation is “the process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal”, motivation always put very positive impact on not only an employee’s mind but on every single living being in this world, one can understand that if there wouldn’t be any such thing as motivation than no body would have any charm in life or would have no courage or desire to achieve something in life, the motivation is specifically used in the today’s world, where the world is facing growing diversities, exquisite challenges, and above all the competition which is moving on day by day, the employees are not only required to contribute to their level best in their organizations but also required to show loyalty to the place where they earning from, so in order to get maximum from them and in order to utilize their talents at best motivation is playing a tough role, so that employees keep on moving in the right dimension, they should think and work for their achievements as well as the organization’s achievement and they should not give up in life ever. Keeping in view the growing needs of employees there are so many motivational theories that have taken place in the present day organizations, a lot of employees get motivated using such theories, in this discussion we would be discussing few of these theories that are useful for the employees in the given case, the main concerns would be on Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, while other useful theories would be Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Two-factor theory, McClelland’s Needs theory, Goal-setting theory, Reinforcement Theory. McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y Theory X The assumption, which says that employees who dislike work are lazy, they dislike responsibility, and they must be coerced to perform well. Theory Y The assumption, which says that employees who love their work are creative, they seek responsibility and they can exercise self-direction. Douglas McGregor gave two different views of human beings, the first view is the negative view and is known as theory X, the other view is positive and is known as theory Y, the entire explanation of the theory says that the manager shows his or her behavior according to certain assumptions, the theory X would be the effective one here, as the employees are assumed to be forced to work, the four basic assumptions for theory X are, 1. Employees inherently dislike work and whenever possible, will attempt to avoid it. 2. Since employees dislike work, they must be coerced, controlled, or threatened with, punishment to achieve goals. 3. Employee will avoid responsibilities and seek formal direction whenever possible. 4. Most workers place security above all other factors associated with work and will display little ambition. Now lets have a look at the assumptions of theory Y that is not applicable in this case because of the fact that employees are not hardworking and not devoted to their work. 1. Employees can view work as being as natural as rest or play. 2. People will exercise self-direction and self-control if they are committed to the objectives. 3. The average person can learn to accept, even seek, responsibility. 4. The ability to make innovative decisions is widely dispersed through out the population and is not necessarily the sole province of those in management positions. The theories given by McGregor reflect the Maslow’s hierarchy and it states that the theory X assumes that lower-order needs dominate individuals such as psychological, safety and social needs, while theory Y assumes that higher-order needs dominate the individuals such as esteem and self-actualization. In the case of bank employees, the theory X assumptions have to be considered by the manager and keeping these in mind she has to identify the basics, which can put them from theory X to theory Y, the first thing the manager needs to do is the interaction with her colleagues and people working under her area, she has to identify all the needs that are prevailing and not fulfilled, there are numerous of things she could do to put them on track, there are numerous need theories that can be associated with the bank’s case such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, the manager can identify the level till when the needs of the employees are fulfilled, at numerous occasions it has been seen that due to personal problems people are unable to contribute toward work and they are simply unable to concentrate on the given tasks, this results in a lot of turnovers in the organizations and also results in the absenteeism that is a failure to report at work, it often affects the profitability of the organization such as in the bank’s case one can easily see that people call for assistance and they do not get the proper response from the people at work, as a result this gives a negative impression about the bank and it really turns the potential customers of the bank of, in a job where the base is communication one cannot do any such thing as passing on the calls to one another, so the entire scenario says that the manager should look forward to understand the basics of the employees, these were psychological needs that the manager should understand about the employees, the next level of needs is safety, in the case of bank there is a possibility that employees might just not be feeling well and they have some doubts in their minds that their job is unsecured and they can loose there job at any time with out any prior notice regardless of their level of performance, the manager’s job is to identify such feeling within the employees and she should encourage them in working with full confidence while neglecting any such thinking, she should also point out the fact that they can all loose their jobs if they would not work effectively and she should give a reason such as the decrease in profitability that would lead to the firing of them, however if they keep on working with full dedication there is no chance of loosing on their job and also they would keep on getting incentives and rewards in the near future. The next level of need is the need of belongingness, it has been seen commonly that people working in a organization don’t have great relations they are very much into pulling each others leg and also poking nose in others business as a result people leave their jobs and start working somewhere else where they can create congenial relationships with the subordinates, the manager can also put the same assumption in the bank’s case, she can get herself into the subordinates and should try to understand each others relationship in terms of working in a collaborative way, and she should also observe their behavior, there is a possibility that she can find out that her subordinates are having a lot of hassles and they all are working in an unusual manner as a group, she should let them know that they all should admire each others work and it would bring motivation in them automatically to work hard, she can give them a lecture and can let them know that in order to achieve the maximum they have to work as a group no matter if tomorrow some one of them would be promoted to much higher post but at the moment they all should work together, because you never know that who is going to be promoted, the previous three levels were lower level of needs which were more important for the employees working in the bank, as they all are facing the assumptions of theory X which requires a more concentration on the above mentioned three levels. The next theory that can be related to the bank’s case while considering the assumptions of theory X is Two-Factor Theory, introduced by a psychologist Frederick Herzberg sometimes also called motivation-hygiene theory, it emphasizes on the intrinsic factors that can actually related to the job satisfaction, while considering the fact that extrinsic factors are associated with job dissatisfaction, the manager’s job is to identify the dissatisfaction in the employees, she has to ask them for few reasons about there dissatisfaction to work, the main concerns should be on extrinsic factors that are causing dissatisfaction, those are supervision, pay, company policies, and working conditions. The manager has got some control on them, such as in the supervision part she can really ask them about their views on her behavior, and in which way they would like her to be keeping the responsibility of work in the mind at the same time, she can motivate them as in the case that she can pass on their performance report to the upper management that can consider them to be liable to have incentives and rewards such as increase in pay and related things. The intrinsic factors are related to the job satisfaction, which is not there at the moment, those factors are advancement, recognition, responsibility, and achievement, in order to bring the employees some satisfaction, the manager should again let them understand each other and should keep on making them realize each others work and also should make them feel an important part of the organization, her job is to help them understanding their part and level of contribution to the bank, she must tell them that it is them at whom the entire banking base is formed because the business is based on the sharing of information first than other things start appearing, she should make them understand all these things. The next theory that should be related to the bank’s case while considering the assumptions of theory X is ERG theory, this theory is some what related to the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, but yet it is having few advantages, the theory was proposed by Clayton Alderfer, and he compressed the factors of Maslow’s in his theory, ERG theory is all about Existence (psychological and safety), Relatedness (social and extrinsic esteem) and Growth (intrinsic esteem and self actualization), the manager would have to keep on the same points in her view while applying the ERG theory as she applied in the Maslow’s Need theory, there is no special difference except the manager would now be looking for existing needs of her employees, such as the basics of life, she would be ensuring that they all are getting the basics such as food, entertainment, proper health and such things, only than she would be able to get them back on work properly. The next theory that could be applied to the bank’s employees keeping in mind the assumptions of theory X is McClelland’s Theory, the theory was develop by David McClelland and it emphasizes on threes needs, those are achievement, power and affiliation. The manager should consider her workers and should recognize their true potential, she should look at their work history, and one can be very sure in predicting that the workers working for the bank must not be having great achievements, the first task was to identify this fact, the second task for the manager is to give them courage, she can tell them about the positive attitude towards life, she can tell them to be a normal worker in life but who is having few achievements to remember in their old age, and this would be having a very positive impact on their minds, and thus they would be able to meet the need of achievement. The next need is the need of power, every one in life desires to be more powerful in terms of commanding others, the manager’s job is motivate the workers by letting them know that if they would work with greater concentration they all can get higher post in the near future and they all are likely to control other individuals, again she should point this fact out that the employees are still very powerful and they have a lot of power as they perform the basics of the bank if they would not work, than the bank would not be able to survive, so they all should be forming a strong base of the bank, and yet every thing and every outcome would be based on their work, so they all are very powerful. The third need is the need for affiliation, they all would be willing to work in a friendly environment, of course no body loves to be isolated and willing to take all the responsibility on single shoulder, so the manager’s job is to help all of them understand each other and should help them in collaborating with each other and should be assigning them tasks that are most probably group tasks so that they all start working together as team and they should know how to work in a friendly environment, this would have some positive impact on the revenue of the bank. One last theory that should be compared with the assumptions of theory X and also suitable with the case of bank is the Reinforcement Theory, the reinforcement concept is slightly different than the previously mentioned theories but yet it is very effective, lets consider that the manager is facing a lot of calls instead of the employees, the manager has decided to use the reinforcement on the employees, there are two types of reinforcements, positive and negative, the positive reinforcement means that the reward would be given to the employee so that a desired behavior is encouraged to happen again and again, and negative reinforcement means that punishment would be given to minimize the undesirable behavior, in the case of bank’s employees the manager should be putting a lot of stress on the positive reinforcement theory but it is simply possible if the manager has encouraged the workers to perform well through the previously discussed theories, if they all are feeling comfortable and they all have started showing a positive behavior because of the other theories than positive reinforcement can make them work even more harder and most importantly the rewards should be monetary to keep them motivated as money is all in this era, secondly the manager can also apply the negative reinforcement theory which is already in practice as the employee’s pay is decreased each time they work poorly, so it is not useful in making them comfortable the manager should be putting positive reinforcement into consideration as it has the tendency to create the desired outcomes. Now lets consider the case of Theory Y, which is having entirely different assumptions, first of all the theory cannot be applied here directly because the workers are not at all creative, though the manager is the one who is more responsible and has a positive attitude towards the work, the first thing is to change the employees from theory X assumptions to theory Y assumptions, after that she can use other numerous theories as the employees would be than more competent and can work under any circumstances, the first theory that manager can put into her consideration is the Goal-Setting Theory, in this particular theory that manager can actually assign difficult tasks to each and every individual and it is simply not just related to the work in the banking hours but she can also ask them to work outside the bank may be by asking them to utilize their public and personal relations in communicating the bank’s services and the benefits provided by them and can also introduce an incentive program for instance if an employee has received a call from the reference as a result of previous communication in non-banking hours with that reference and the employee is somehow able to convince the reference to use the bank’s service which is again profitable than that employee would be getting some commission from the bank in person basis which is again very motivating, but first the employee’s mental presence is necessary, this would also increase the potential in the employees and would help them improving self-efficacy which is the tendency of individual to perform the task with effectiveness. The second theory that the manager can apply on the individuals and employees of the bank is again related to the effectiveness of employees because of previously applied theories, this time the theory should be Equity Theory, in this particular theory there are some external issues, here the manager can ask all the employees to compare them with not the people they are currently working with because it can cause demoralization and manager can say to them that they all are equal in comparison with each other as long as they keep on working for the same bank, but they should compare themselves with the people at similar posts outside the bank may be in the competitor banks, this is for sure going to have a very positive impact on the employees, and they all would start thinking about the differences that they might be having with others, they all would than start grooming themselves more, even though they are currently working very well as they are now changed from theory X to theory Y, but still they are finding a lot of competition outside the bank, so they would be trying to work more effectively keeping on the competition around the globe, in fact if every manager of this world would start bringing in employees from the theory X to theory Y and keep on applying different theories on them, than there would be a day sooner when the competition would be even globalized and not just on organization to organization basis but it would be on country to country basis and that should be the goal of every organization being operated not only at high levels but also at small levels. Work cited and other sources Bartol, K.M., D. Martin, “Principles of Management”, New York: McGraw Hill, 1998. Robbins S., “Organizational Behavior”, (n.p.): Prentice Hall, 2003. Read More