A General Managers Perspective - Assignment Example

Human Resource Management Submitted by: XXXXXXX Number: XXXXXX of XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX Date of Submission: XX – XX – 2010 Number of Words: 2092 (Excluding Bibliography) Explain analytically, how motivation theories could help managers elicit ‘discretionary effort’ from employees. Illustrate your answer with suitable examples of HR practices. Introduction: Human resource is a very essential part of any company and the people within the company play a very important role. Thus understanding how to manage people and the basics of understanding the needs of people at work will help create better and more successful managers. Managing people at work is an essential element of any business. Human Resources Management is a specialised function by itself and requires to be managed with special care and attention. Employees are an asset to any company (CGDA, 2008). Human resource management deals with managing these assets. Human resource management deals with ensuring that all the needs of employees are met and that the company receives the best from the employees. It is very important for the business to ensure that the employees that have been recruited are able to perform the duties both effectively and efficiently. The key ideas for managing people revolve around Psychology, Sociology, Unitarism, Pluralism, Contingency theory and Ethics. It is important to understand that employees are to be treated in a good way and managing people means acknowledging that people within the organisation are an important part of the entire process within the organisation (Weightman, 2004). Managing people means understanding both the formal as well as informal relations between people at work. It is essential for the management to realise that with the best technology, and best processes however without the cooperation of employees the company will not be able to succeed. Manager’s Role in Motivation: The following are a few steps that can be taken at work either by managers or even by each employee to ensure that the colleagues are well motivated and interested in the job. This section sets out a few underlying principles to assist managers with motivation of employees. This has been derived from all the different theories that have been presented over the years by various theorists. As already mentioned this section is going to list out the steps to make motivation happen in an organisation. The steps are as listed below. Leadership: Motivation is the most important aspect of any organisation. It is essential for competitiveness, cost effectiveness that in simpler words is staying alive. Motivation is like a commitment and application of people at work. But all these mainly depend on leadership. Therefore the leaders need to keep in mind a few important guidelines while trying to motivate their employees. It is firstly essential for managers to follow the old saying – Practice what you preach. This is a very common scene in almost every company. There are several managers who preach a lot of different ways that the employees need to participate within the company however this is not followed by most of the managers (Daft, 2005). The main reason why managers need to ensure they follow what they preach as this would move on to become an issue for the managers as questions could be raised by employees. Another very essential point to be kept in mind is the fact that when a manager is trying to bring about a change in the organisation, special care needs to be taken by managers to be positive about each step taken within the change process. It is important that a change should be carefully handled and potential benefits of the change should be emphasised on rather than the penalties. When managers have good idea or suggestions for the company it is essential to put these suggestions into action. To do this the suggestions must always be directed to persons who can press the ‘go’ button. Managers should show enthusiasm by going and speaking to people instead of writing memos and pamphlets, papers (Daft, 2005). This however is not only for managers and is more so for all employees, as it is easier to put forth an idea in person rather than on paper. Surveys: Changing behaviour, and hence, attitudes, is difficult unless you can identify as a start point. In all companies there are a number of employees who resist change and are unwilling to accept any change of any kind. Therefore it is essential to define the problem and why it exists and a simple objective survey always is very beneficial (Podmoroff, 2005). These however have a few simple guidelines to be followed namely: Avoiding quantitative researches is more beneficial since the questionnaire preparation and planning requires specialist design and analysis. Use of qualitative analysis is the most appropriate. The analysis helps seeks facts, opinion, quotes from employees. Also comparison of and contrast what currently happens and what should happen is made possible (Daft, 2005). Look for positive examples of behaviour on which to report. Examples like labour turnover by asking employees why they stay in a particular organisation than by ploughing remorselessly through piles of exit interviews. Don’t risk ‘paralysis by analysis!’ In short, avoid analysis of problems to death. It is more useful to try to gather as much as information and to help colleagues reach conclusions and draw up action plans based on established good practices either in the same organisation or elsewhere (Daft, 2005). The reports should be quick, brief and objective. It is essential that no sweeping statements are made and the conclusions should be discussed with the key players. Recommendations should be provided to all participants and contributors. While recommendation of changes it is important that not too many changes are recommended. This is because people normally dislike change and it is also that people can cope with only a few changes at a time. Also recommendation of many changes indirectly implies that the company or team is not performing well and it can be offending for some companies if too many recommendations for change are given. Use of Good Practice: Being a manager does not require training for leadership skills, or having a set number of principles for a job or set systems. It is important to understand that theories that have been developed over the years are only meant for references and not to be used as a bible for every move. It is important that individuals understand this and try to learn by example. Also the main idea to be kept in mind is that the most important aspect that requires to be followed is the simple good practices. This will allow individuals to be better leaders as well as help motivate employees. Motivation more than any other skills simply requires a person to be clear minded with strong and positive principles (Fayol, 1949). Pilot Schemes: Pilot schemes are sometimes useful for controlled experiments with established techniques (Daft, 2005). As a general rule it is essential to keep in mind if a plan hasn’t been tried and hasn’t worked elsewhere, it should not be experimented with in an organisation. It is not right to try something which has proved to be a failure in an organisation. No Panaceas: Motivation is not a magic. It is a process which involves good analysis and thinking of the problems. Thus at any given point in time this should be carefully though out and there is no cure all situation for motivation of employees (Gazendam, 1993). There are always loop holes where come employees require a different approach to be motivated to work better. Human Resource Strategy: Every organisation has a set system of values from the beginning of the birth of the firm. The values of the firm are as important as the mission or vision of the organisation. The values are normally relevant to the corporate objectives of the firm and are set out on the basis of what the company believes in. If a company sets down a set of values, it is essential that the company’s strategy also provides for these things to happen in a relevant way (Daft, 2005). Policies and Procedures: In every company, or even a group of companies, nothing ever happens unless there’s a simple policy or procedure for making the thing happen. These policies and procedures should be set out and should include, what should happen, who needs to manage it, how it should take place, how it is monitored, etc. need to be encompassed in these policies (George, 1968). It is very simple and understandable why companies require this to be set out from the beginning. These rules that have been set down helps companies to ensure the process of doing things is more focussed and it allows the company to achieve the goals. As important as this is, it is even more important and necessary for the company to correctly communicate these policies and procedures to all the involved parties to ensure complete clarity. Tackle the Roadblocks: It is essential that every employee takes up the responsibility to ensure that all steps are taken to ensure better employee motivation. If an employee feels that a manager does not keep up to what has been agreed or what is required, this can be taken seriously and serious steps can be taken to ensure the situation is sorted out. These matters can be sorted out by talking to the person directly to ascertain whether it is an issue of conduct or capability (Maslow, 1998). Then appropriate action needs to be taken to ensure the individual is corrected either by means of training, counselling or talking to the boss. These matters should be taken very seriously as they will not fade away eventually but will become more tangled over a period of time. Idealist approach: Enthusiasm plays a very important role in any change. It is important to be very optimistic and straight forward regarding change issues to make a change happen or for that matter for anything to happen be it change, motivation or even daily routine work, it is essential that individuals are positive, realistic and rational. KISS: This acronym means ‘Keep It Short and Simple’. In every field it is essential to apply this rule. With the fast growing and developing world, it is a common scene that most people do not have enough time to go through complex psychological models and theories. The message should be brief, crisp and the essence of the message should be communicated. Optimism: This is one of the most essential elements in every aspect. As a manager it is essential to create a surrounding with a positive environment. It is essential that all the managers ensure use of positive language even within normal conversations. This helps the employees remain motivated and creates an optimistic environment within the organisation. It is important that all ideas are framed as proposals, i.e., it should follow a pattern. Firstly start with the benefits, the follow up with the method, following which explain the investment required and finally go back to the benefits. This is not selling it is simple common sense (Sparrow and Hiltrop, 1994). All these points help to ensure motivation happens within the organisation and that employees do feel the need to do something good for the company. Once an employee relates to the company as its own the results and outcomes will see a drastic change and the company will see higher revenues as well. Thus the importance of employee motivation can be clearly understood from the above discussion. Conclusions: One of the most important aspects of a business is managing people. This plays a very important role in the success of the business. A business with an excellent business model, good infrastructure however with de - motivated or un – satisfied employees will lead to the failure of the business (Buchanan and Huczynski 2004). Thus managing people with the organisation does not only mean selection and recruitment of individuals for the company it is the entire process that the management needs to take care of from selection of a candidate till the rewarding. Employee needs play a very important role in the levels of motivation and the output levels that the employees show. Thus it is very important that the management not only concentrate on the business model but also on the employees within the company. It is very important that the management understand the needs of the employees and try to ensure these needs are met to acceptable levels. This would help the company indirectly and help the company perform better as well. In short higher levels of satisfied needs = Higher levels of performance = Higher revenue for the company (Beer, Lawrence, Quinn Mills, and Walton, 1985). Bibliography Beer, M., Lawrence, P.R., Quinn Mills, D., and Walton, R.E., 1985, ‘Human Resource Management: A General Manager’s Perspective’, Free Press, Glencoe, IL Buchanan D. and Huczynski A., 2004, Organizational behavior, 5th edn, Prentice Hall, Essex CGDA, 2008, Process of Motivation, Accessed on 5th January 2010, Retrieved from http://cgda.nic.in/rt/rtcblr/website/Training%20Material/H%20R%20D/Image11.gif Daft, R., 2005, ‘Management’, 7th edition, Thomson South-Western, Mason, OH Fayol, H., 1949, ‘General and industrial management’, Pitman Publishing company, London Gazendam, H.W.M, 1993, ‘Variety Controls Variety: On the use of Organisation Theories in Information Management’, Groningen: Wolters – Noordhoff, 400p George, C., 1968, ‘The History of Management thought’, Prentice – Hall, UK Maslow, A.,H., 1998, ‘Toward a Psychology of Being’, 9 November 1998, 3rd Edn., Wiley Publishers Podmoroff, D.B.A., 2005, 365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day: With Little or No Money, 30 September 2005, Atlantic Publishing Company Sparrow, P., and Hiltrop, J.M., 1994, ‘European Human Resource Management in Transition’, Prentice Hall, Hemel Hempstead Weightman, J., ‘Managing People’, 2nd edition, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2004, CIPD Publishing, London Read More