Motivating Employees and Team Building - Research Paper Example

Running head: Case study: Motivating Employees and Team building Case study: Motivating Employees and Team building [Institution's Name] Abstract: The contents of the paper comprise the case study of ACTAVIS BULGARIA EAD Sofia's employee motivation and Team development. It is elaborated in the paper that Motivation is not a simple concept; instead, motivation pertains to various drives, desires, needs, wishes, and other forces. Managers motivate by providing an environment that induces organisation members to contribute. The need-want satisfaction chain is somewhat oversimplified. How Team building will enhance the productivity of Employees is also discussed. Table of Contents S. No. Title Page no. 01. Abstract 01 02. Brief Introduction of Company 03 03. Motivation 05 04. Employees wants 06 05. Solution through using theories 10 06. Recommendations 12 07. Team Building 13 08. Solution proposal in terms of theory 13 09. Summary 15 10. References 16 Brief introduction of Company: ACTAVIS BULGARIA EAD Sofia is the Bulgarian branch of the international generic pharmaceutical company Actavis Group hf. Headquartered in Iceland the Group operates in 28 countries with more than 7,000 employees. Actavis is one of the leading European providers of generic pharmaceuticals, with turnover and EBITDA in 2004 of EUR 452 million and EUR 115 million, respectively. It develops manufactures and distributes generics under its own brand name and acts as an outsourcing partner for other major pharmaceutical companies. The Bulgarian chapter of Actavis's history started in 1999 with the privatisation of three state owned pharmaceutical factories located in the cities of Dupnitca, Razgrad and Troyan. In the five-year period to 2004 all of them have been completely renovated in order to comply with the European GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) Standards. Currently Actavis operates in the country split into two divisions - Operations and Sales & Marketing. Actavis Operations is a holding company responsible for the management of the three factories providing first class generic products, mainly for the Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian and CIS markets. The Sales & Marketing division is represented in the country by Actavis Bulgaria EAD, a company registered under the Bulgarian law. It employs about 200 people and operates three warehouses in the country. Actavis Bulgaria EAD is mainly focused on marketing the Group's products as first class generics on the Bulgarian market, which is the third biggest market for the company's own brand revenues world-wide. Motivation: Motivation means different things to different individuals. For some, it may be an incentive and for others, a psychological backing or setting a good example. Motivation is something abstract and the difficulties arise when one tries to explain its meaning and application. A wide variety of assumptions have been made on motivation by observing the resultant behaviour of motivation. Based on these assumptions and research findings, motivation has been defined in a number of ways. Vroom defines motivation as a process, which governs choices made by persons or lower organisms among alternative forms of voluntary activity. (Vroom, 1964) Motivations are the act of inducing an individual to follow a desired course of action. The desired course of action may be for the good of the individual or for the one who is inducing the individual towards a desired course of action or both. Zedeck and blood contend that motivation is a predisposition to act in a specific goal-directed way. (Sedeck & Blood, 1974) According to Atchison: Motivation is the immediate influence on the direction, vigor, and persistence of behaviour. (Atchison, 1964) Gellerman defines motivation as steering one's actions towards certain goals and committing a certain part of one's energies to reach them. (Gellerman, 1963) In the view of Shartle, motivation is "a reported urge or tension to move in a given direction or to achieve a certain goal. (Shartle, 1956) Since the Company is mainly focused on marketing it is very important for the employees to be motivated in order to capture the market since attracting a customer is not an easy job especially in the case of generics. Motivation can make the employees get all the targets settled by the Organisations. In the case of ACTAVIS the managers should also make the most of the Maslow's needs satisfaction theory which is the base of motivating an individual. In order to motivate the employees it is important for the company to understand the basic needs of the employees. Employee Wants: Just as the definition of basic human needs is a highly complex task, it naturally follows that there are no easy assumptions concerning what employees really want from the organisation. In various surveys, the following are some of the more typically specified wants: Pay: This want helps in satisfying physiological, security, and egoistic needs. The design of a monetary compensation system is exceedingly complex since it serves to satisfy multiple needs and cannot alone motivate the whole person. Security of job: Because of threats from technological change, this want is high on the list or priorities for many employees and labour unions. The underlying need of general security is also high on the list of priorities in the suggested need hierarchy of Maslow. Congenial associates. This want issues from the social need of gregariousness and acceptance. Management can aid the process by carefully planned and executed induction programs, provision of means to socialise through rest periods and recreational programs, and promoting the formation of work teams through proper work-station layouts and human-related work procedures. Credit for work done: This want issues from the egoistic classification of needs and can be supplied by management through verbal praise of excellent work, monetary rewards for suggestions, and public recognition through awards. Releases in employee's newspapers, and the like. A meaningful job: This want issues from both the need for recognition and the drive toward self-realisation and achievement. This is a very difficult want to supply, particularly in large organisations having minute division of work and mechanically paced assembly lines. Some research into the possibilities of job enrichment has indicated the possibility of integrating the need of employees for significant work and the need of the organisation productive, co-ordinated activity. Opportunity to advance: Not all employees want to advance. Some feel the social needs more strongly than the egoistic ones. However, most employees like to know that the opportunity is there, should they desire to use it. This feeling is influenced by a cultural tradition of freedom and opportunity. Comfortable, safe, and attractive working condition: The want for good working conditions also rests upon multiple needs. Safe working conditions issue from the security need. The specific attributes, such as desks and rugs, constitute symbols of status denoting a hierarchy of importance. Much management have discovered that the allocation of such status symbols can be quite as difficult as the allocation of money. In today's environment where the threat of violence is increasing safety is also an important factor which plays an important role in employee motivation. Competent and fair leadership: The want of good leadership can issue from physiological and security needs. Good leadership helps to assure that the organisation and its jobs will continue to exist. In addition, the ego demands that one-respect person from whom orders and directions are to be received. It is very frustrating to be subjected personally to a command from an individual who is deemed unworthy and incompetent. Reasonable orders and directions: The order is the official communication of organisation requirements. In general, it should be related to the requirements of the situation, capable of being executed, complete but not unnecessarily detailed, clear and concise, and given in a manner that stimulates acceptance. Unreasonable orders incapable of accomplishment serve only to increase insecurity and frustration. Unreasonable orders that work contrary to the best interests of the organisation may lead to a form of malicious obedience; the employee takes great delight in following them to the letter in hopes of harming the superior who merits little respect. A socially relevant organisation: The trend toward greater social expectations of private organisations has impact upon such an organisation's employee's expectations. This want issues from human needs of self-esteem, and levies a highly challenging responsibility upon the organisation's management. In a job environment where the most of the above mentioned conditions will fulfilled the employees will be more committed and productive. The managers at ACTAVIS should fulfil the conditions above in order to achieve the desired goals. Solution through using theories: As Locke (1976) put forward a theory of motivation based on goal setting. The individuals in the company can be motivated by setting goal as Goal Theory suggest that it is the goal that an individual is aiming for which motivates, rather than just the satisfaction of attaining it. Locke's view is that what a person values or desires determines the goals he sets for himself, but that what actually drives him (motivates him) are the goals themselves. Locke's own researches indicated that individual performance was better when people had been set specific goals of a challenging or difficult nature, and when they received feedback on their performance. This approach clearly has implications for the practice of management-by-objectives of target setting. Which relies for its success on the mutual agreement of specific goals between a manager and his subordinate. A modern and a more permanent approach to motivation are through job enrichment. This involves putting meaning into jobs. In other words, it is putting Herzberg's two-factor theory into effect by building motivators into the job. These motivators include achievement, growth, responsibility, advancement and recognition. This approach can also work for ACTAVIS since the company is renovating its units. According to the approach the company should plan to change the job contents of the employees in order to motivate them for the new unit settled by ACTAVIS in Bulgaria. A number of research studies have indicated that the job content is an important factor in motivating people. So the content of a routine or repetitive task must be restructured to provide motivation to the performer of that job. One way of restructuring the job is through job enrichment, or making jobs more meaningful. If a manager can include more of Herzberg's motivators, people who perform such jobs utilise their skills and potentials to the best of their abilities and be more productive on the job. Thus, the jobs would be richer and not just bigger. Hence the use of the term job enrichment. Keeping in view the case of ACTAVIS following steps have been recommended to make jobs enriching: Selection of an area or job where an improvement in motivation will make a difference in performance or productivity. Clues such absenteeism, turnover, tardiness, poor quality, lack of interest and production delays may provide an answer in selecting an area or jobs to be enriched. Development of criteria for measuring changes in productivity among the employees in the selected area or job. These measurements may include rate of absenteeism, number of products rejected, waste, etc. 1 Forming a committee of members who are familiar with the chosen area or job. Care must be exercised in selecting members of this committee. Members whose jobs are to be enriched should not be included in this committee. 2 The committee then brainstorms the job or area chosen for job enrichment and as a result it may come out with a list of changes that could be made in the content of the job in order to make it more meaningful. Answers to questions such as "How to make this job more challenging" "How to make this job more meaningful" and so on will help to formulate some changes in the job content. 3 Screening of the list of changes suggested by the members of the committee. Changes, which are not motivational in nature, must be eliminated. These must deal with Herzberg's motivators such as responsibility, challenge, advancement, recognition, growth and so on. 4 The sequence and time schedule in incorporating the selected changes must be determined. The committee must anticipate some obstacles, which may prevent some of the changes from being made. 5 The responsibility to check the implementation and progress of this task must be assigned to some specific individuals. 6 The committee set up for the purpose of job enrichment must review the progress of the work periodically to evaluate the impact of the changes that have been made. Once the result indicate that job enrichment works in one area, efforts can be undertaken to enrich other jobs and areas. In essence, job enrichment provides the worker with more responsibility and freedom in carrying out a complete task and with timely feedback on his performance. (Powers, 1972) job enrichment creates a self-managed job where the phases of the task. (Myers, 1968) A number of companies which have successfully implemented job enrichment programme report improvement in the production. Team building: A team according to Adair (1986) is more than just a group with a common aim. It is a group in which the contributions of individuals are seen as complementary. Collaborations, working together are the keynote of a team activity. Adair suggest that the test of a good (i.e. effective) team is: 'whether its members can work as a team while they are apart, contributing to a sequence of activities rather than to a common task, which requires their presence in one place at one time.' Solution proposal in terms of theory: The key variables that determine the relative effectiveness of groups in achieving their goals and satisfying the needs of their members. These variables, which have to be addressed if there is to be any chance of building a successful team, ACTAVIS managers should take them in consideration for creating the successful team. They are: The size of the group The nature of the task The environment in which the group operates The leadership requirements of the group The roles played by individual members The knowledge, skill, motivations and other attributes of the group-members The potential for / desirability of group cohesiveness The work and social norms of the group Adair emphasises the importance of careful selection of team members. The key factors here for individuals are not only technical or professional competence, but also the ability to work as a team member, and the possession of desirable personal attributes' such as willingness to listen, flexibility of outlook, and the capacity to give and accept trust. Effective groups In order to create a successful team at ACTAVIS following steps should be taken: The atmosphere should be informal and relaxed. There should be much relevant discussion in which most members participate. The group task should be clearly understood and people are committed to achieving it. The members should listen to each other Conflict is not avoided, but brought into the open and dealt with constructively. Most decisions are reached by consensus Ideas are expressed freely and openly. Leadership does not always reside in the chairman, but is shared as appropriate. The group examines its own progress of behaviour. Summary: Since ACTAVIS is establishing its new units and renovating the old units it is important for the Company to practise best motivation techniques available in order to meet the needs of both the new and the old employees. Since there is a variety of people working in large organisations such as ACTAVIS it can be useful for the managers to apply a combination of the motivation theories to get outstanding performance from the employees. It should be also kept in mind that an individual effort cannot the height of achievement till the time it is combined by the efforts of other people. Team building can serve the purpose. There are some important factors, which should be taken into consideration while building a team. References Adair, J., (1973). Action-centred Leadership, McGraw-Hill Atchinson, J.W., 1964, An Introduction to motivation, Van Nostrand, Princeton. J.J Gellerman, Saul W, 1963, Motivation and productivity, New York: American management association, McGregor, D., (1960). The human Side of enterprise, McGraw-Hill Myers, M. S., (1968). Every Employee a Manager, California Management Review, Spring Powers, J. E, (1972). Job Enrichment: How one Company Overcame the Obstacles, Personnel, May-June Sedeck S., Blood M., 1974, Foundations of Behavioral Science Research Organizations, Wadsworth publishing company, Belmont, Calif, .p. 174. Shartle C., 1956, Executive Performance and Leadership, New Jersey: Prentice hall, inc. Englewood Cliffs. Vroom, Victor H., 1964, Work and motivation, New York: John Wiley & sons, p, 6 Read More