The Importance of Understanding Motivation - Assignment Example

Organizational Behaviour By Name Course name Lecturer Question 1 The Importance of understanding motivation and how it can improve organizational performance Employee performance has often been linked to motivation. Since the goal of manager is to optimise production and efficiency, it essential for them to understand motivation and how it can be used to improve performance. One basic importance of understanding motivation is that managers will have an idea of the motivation approaches that can effectively motivate the employees. Consequently, managers will work towards adopting strategies that motivate the workforce. For instance, intrinsic motivation depicts the desire to do something essentially due to the fact that it is enjoyable. Motivational researchers acknowledge the fact that; situational variables within an individual can lead to the achievement of a certain positive behaviour. Therefore if an employee is intrinsically motivated, he/she strives inwardly to be proficient at doing something in order to reward themselves inwardly (Gollowitzer 1996). One of the strategies that can be used to achieve this is through the job design. If jobs can be transformed to make it more interesting for the employees, then a manager should adopt such approaches. This will therefore motivate employees and enhance their performance. Understanding motivation also enables managers to develop a stable workforce whereby employee turnover is less. It has been approximated that organizations incur financial losses double the salary of the employees when filling a vacant positions (Deems, 1998). The costs cover recruitment, hiring expenses and costs related human resource training. Nevertheless, when managers have a precise understanding of motivation, they will institute motivational schemes that have the potential to satisfy the needs of the employees. As a result, employees will not feel the need to leave the organisation. Furthermore, the employees will become more committed to their roles in the organization. In return, this increases organizational performance. For instance, if employees are well motivated, they tend to perform their tasks enthusiastically and devotedly. This implies that the employee turnover rate and absenteeism is reduced. The organization will therefore have a stable workforce and most importantly, improved organizational performance (Marisa and Yusof 2011). By understanding motivation managers also tend to realise the achievement of organizational goals. When managers keep their subordinates motivated, it causes the employees to assume goal directed behaviours. Thus, employees work towards a desired direction in order to earn rewards. As argued by the goal theory, the main question that runs through the mind of every employee is fundamentally ‘’ what do I benefit or gain out of this task?’’ (Miner, 2007). Consequently, the behaviour of most employees is usually directed to the goal of earning the existing benefits that are pegged on the task. In organizations where managers understand the needs of their subordinates as well as institute pertinent incentives and achievement of organizational goals, improving performance is easily realised (Adamus 2005). Motivation also helps managers to development constructive organizational relationships. This is because motivated workers feel more closely attached to the organisation. Here, the needs of the employees can be fulfilled through promotional opportunities and attractive rewards, hence causing employees to begin to take interest in the organization and their duties. Constructive relationships can improve organizational performance (Adamus 2005). This is because employee’s work with the view of improving the organisation’s welfare since their morale is high. They also tend to inculcate a sense of ownership of the organization and therefore they become more inclined to performing well in order to support the organization. Question 2 Changes in organizational environments in the 21st Century Whereas some scholar have expressed that organizational change before the mid-late 20th century could have been incremental and sporadic, towards the end of the century, change became dynamic following the rapid adoption of technologies in management (McGraw Hill n.d.). In the 21st century, more changes have taken place within the organizational environment. Indeed, rapid or dynamic technological change and concepts such as total quality management as well as the concept of ‘delayering’ have made organizations to be more certain of the importance of information and using technology to implement change. Organizations in the 21st century have witnessed a marked increase in the application of technology to create and recreate ideas, market ideas to clients and to communicate an organization’s message across the globe. Because of the high uptake of computerised resources and internet penetration, organizations have become more global (Ajmal et al 2013). New management practices have also become prevalent in the 21st century. The organizational environment has increasingly witnessed a shift in management styles. In many case however, such change (including downsizing being a notable characteristic of organisations in the 21st century) appear to have done more harm than good (Anon nd). The 21st century organizational environment has also become more global and multicultural because of improved infrastructure and communication systems. A common feature of organization environments is people from different cultural backgrounds. Indeed, because of change in economic policies across the globe, businesses in the 21st century have focused on expansions in other countries across the globe (McGraw Hill n.d.). The 21st century organizational environment is also characterised by extended networks of small organizations or businesses. The concept of large behemoth organizations has become out-of-date in the 21 century. This is because smaller organizations that are typically composed of less than 10 employees form venture or a per project basis. Each of the firms contributes its particular line of business or skills to the venture for the common objective or the good of the project. Such networks however break up once the project is complete, as new ventures take on new projects undertaken by new networks (Bal 2008). In the 21st century, organizations are characterised by environments where employees work with greater autonomy and in a more self-directed manner. Indeed, changes in performance management are also an important feature showing changes in the organizational environment in the 21stt century. Additionally, a prevalent change is the method in which the performance of employees is managed in the organizations. While in the 20th century managers consistently used directives given solely by the same manager, this has changed. In the 21st century, multidimensional models are used extensively in performance management (Moorman and Kreitman1997). This allows employees to work in a self-directed manner, with greater autonomy and thus enhancing increased performance. Question 5 Correlation between effective leadership and management Introduction Central to the definition of leadership are two main functions, namely exercising influence and providing direction. Essentially, leadership refers to a natural aura that leaders can feel, sense and identify with. It also refers to an aura that stems for a powerful analytical knowledge applicable through personal formula and which leads to success in creating pathways (Taylor 2001). On the other hand, effective leadership refers to a process where an individual influences other people to accomplish a task or an objective and directs an organization in a manner that makes it more productive. This report examines how effective leadership relates to management. Effective leadership Leaders carry out the process of leadership through application of skills and knowledge in interacting with others. Here, leaders have traits that can influence the followers. This process of leadership is observable and refers to process leadership as indicated by Fig 1. On other hand, leaders may be born rather than be made. Such leaders influence their followers through extroversion, height or intelligence. This process refers to trait leadership (Nwlink 2013) (Fig 1). Figure 1: Types of leadership (Nwlink 2013). Effective leaders undertake leadership through application of their leadership skills and knowledge. Such a process is known as ‘process leadership.’ Leaders with traits and whose traits can influence actions refer to “trait leadership.’ For instance, this may be certain traits that individuals in an organization need to have. Additionally, a single situation may require a leader to have a set of traits. In marketing scenario, a leader needs to have intelligence, understand the needs of followers, motivate people to be trust worthy. Despite the fact that leadership can be learned, the set of skills and knowledge that the leaders processes can be influenced by his attitudes, behaviour, traits, ethics, values and characters. Therefore, knowledge and skills contribute significantly to effective leadership. Effective leaders create a clear direction for organizations. They also communicate convincing visions that match their words and actions. According to Pierce and Dunham (2002), effective leaders assess a situation accurately prior to taking action to obtain positive results. Effective leaders also inspire and motivate their subordinates to assume a role or take an action. For instance, in scenarios where employees are new to a task or have a bad attitude towards some specific roles, effective leaders inspire such workers to approach such tasks as new challenges that they must emerge victorious. Indeed, through this, an effective leader is able to enhance transformations and transitions within the organization (Bal 2008). Effective leaders define the company vision and motivate his subordinates to take up this vision during training sessions or meetings. Effective leaders also display empathy, assertiveness, integrity and sound decision-making to lead people within an organization effectively. After the subordinates show acceptance to the plan, it is the role of the manager to implement the vision by assigning resources and in performing tasks (Bass 1990). An effective leader relies on the use of different sets of tools to complete organisational tasks. Further, an effective leader is more concerned with the formal organisational philosophy as whole. He also analyses the environment surrounding the organization to find the best path for direction, and communicates the path to managers and employees (Kezar 2001). For instance, when market conditions change, an effective leader is able to recognise the need to adjust standard business practice (Beer 2002). Through risk-taking and employing innovative strategies, an effective leader will make it possible for an organization to leverage the opportunities and strengths as well as to eliminate threats and risks. An effective leader also sets goals for the organization. Relating effective leadership to management Leaders have six basic personality traits that relate to effective organizational management. These include ambition, self-confidence, tenacity, drive, psychological openness, realism fairness, creativity, dedication and appetite for learning. All this traits contribute to effective leadership. Indeed, effective leadership relates to management in several ways. This approach is consistent with the Trail Leadership theories. Indeed, a possible way to effectively understanding this correlation is to compare how the ideas or leadership and management relate in their approaches to problem solving. Hence, since effective leaders are basically facilitators of an organization’s network, they typically become the problem solvers of an organization. The role transforms from the reality that certain problems within the organization emerge from issue involving communication. Since effective leaders are the facilitators of the network, it falls within their roles to solve these problems. For instance, when there is communication problems within departments in an organization, problems in interrelationship may evolve where members of one department may see members of other departments as adversaries rather than partners. Under such a scenario, an effective leader serves as a mediator between the departments, by promoting communication and interrelations between the departments. The role of problem-solving may as well be viewed through the lens of avoiding uncertainty within the management construct. Here, uncertainty avoidance depicts how an organisation is structured with the purpose of avoiding uncertainties as much as possible and less structure for organizations that have been forced or are comfortable with the sphere of uncertainty. This approach relates to Situational Leadership Theories, which state that the type of leadership need changes from on situation to the other. Further, effective leadership is related to management in that it falls within the scope of a leader’s role to find the most appropriate solutions to environmental or directional problems in an organization. Since an organisation’s environment changes, problems with the previously selected mechanisms or directions emerge prompting the leader to respond in an effort to solve them. Such kind of problem solving relates to uncertainty avoidance since the more an organization is structured, the more it takes longer to shift direction and hence solutions have to be created to accommodate the delay (Gardner and Stough 2002). On the other hand, less structured organizations can change more rapidly hence giving leaders more freedom in coming up with solutions to a directional problem. For instance, in small businesses that have more than ten employees, leaders have more freedom to diagnose and analyse the problems the business faces in its strategic marketing. Such a leader is hence able to come up with solutions that can solve the directional problems a business faces in marketing. Additionally, it allows for a greater level of risk taking in solving problems since direction can be changed more easily. This approach also relates to Situational Leadership Theories. An effective leader also designs duties and responsibilities that engage worker’s value and competencies. This can be effective in human resource management. Responsibilities tend to be motivating when they are meaningful to the people. Further, they can enable the employees to become motivated, by exercising their competencies and experiences, enabling them to be more innovative, encouraging them to assist others in their personal developments and providing value to customers. Through this, the role of an effective leader is perceived as crucial in the management of the human resources (Gardner and Stough 2002). For instance, when an effective leader combines extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation, it can generate a highly motivated workforce. In return, recognition, incentives and rewards reinforce the kind of behaviour needed for the success of the human resources. Such initiatives encourage employees to be more cooperative. As a result, it is significant that an effective manager recognises and rewards successful cooperation. In other scenarios, an effective leader contributes to talent management and human resource development through coaching. This is since an effective leader knows how to keep the workers focused and recognizes that unless the technical staff within the organization keeps their focus on the corporate objectives; they may begin to shift into directions that are appealing to them. Further, an effective leader encourages the subordinates and makes them aware of the fact that their roles are significant for the organization. For instance, when employees are demotivated and feel that their work is unnecessary, an effective leader encourages them to see the brighter side of the task. Although effective leaders develop trust through walking the talk, this may often not be possible in the modern-day unpredictable business environment (Bal 2008). This approach relates to behavioural theories that look at how leaders behave. For instance, new competitors, market competitors and technological breakthroughs have forced the leaders to rethink their strategy. Therefore, within the modern-day turbulent climate, an effective leader should aim at increasing involvement, commitment and transparency. Through this, managers have been seen to coordinate functions of the organization. The coordination role is greatly related to management of the organization. The relationship between effective leadership and management can also be understood through the relationship between the leader and the worker. This approach is consistent with Relationship Leadership Theories (transformation theories), which is based on the relationship between the leader and subordinate. Typically, workers are entrusted with specific roles. Once they are hired, they become empowered to make critical decision within the scope of the particular tasks. Here, leaders are seen as the facilitators of communication network between the employees and their respect. Therefore, despite the fact that leaders have the obligation to complete tasks, they have to finish the task of charting the forward direction of the organization. Further, they are empowered by their respective roles to make a decision within their scope. Therefore, the relationship between a leader and employees is based on the macro versus macro decisions they make. Conclusion Effective leadership describes a process where an individual influences other people to accomplish a task or an objective and directs an organization in a manner that makes it more productive. Leaders have six basic personality traits that relate to effective organizational management. These include ambition, self-confidence, tenacity, drive, psychological openness, realism fairness, creativity, dedication and appetite for learning. In all, effective leadership relates to management in the area of problem-solving, decision-making, networking and human resource management. 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