Employee Motivation and Leadership at Flumox Company - Assignment Example

Leadership and management Name: Tutor: Course: Date: PART A Question One Leadership style applied by the CEO has led employees of Flumox Company to lack motivation and happiness. The nature of approach by the management seems to favor unilateral decisions and hands-on leadership. It is true that the company has made huge attempts to improve hygiene factors such as pay, work environment, and security. However, the company employees are lacking motivators such as opportunity for growth, achievement and recognition. According to Herzberg two factor theory, employee behavior is influenced by hygiene factors and motivators. Hygiene factors lead to highly dissatisfied employees while motivators result in highly satisfied employees. The possible combination is high hygiene plus low motivation with the job being viewed as a paycheck. The company has done well in elaborating its company policies, pay and working conditions and interpersonal relationship. Herzberg two factor theory identified motivators as falling in the area of satisfaction while hygiene factors denote the areas of dissatisfaction. This means that the previous CEO by ignoring the need for achievement, recognition, work, responsibility and personal growth among employees, they failed to satisfy employees. As a result, employees exhibit intentions to exit the company and show little or no commitment to work tasks and roles. There are also increased levels of absenteeism and decreased productivity. Flumox Company may have focused more on improving work conditions, supervisory management and pay which was necessary to influence the level of dissatisfaction. Yet, motivators are required t influence the level of satisfaction. Question Two Flumox Company is already doing well in terms of pay, work environment, training and development, and interpersonal relationships. However, to improve on the area of satisfaction, the CEO can take up the following measures; Employees should be encouraged to be experts at tasks by taking up new and challenging tasks. This will increase their levels of achievement and advance their careers. Instead of using supervisors, the management should consider providing continuous and regular feedback on job performance and productivity that is direct to employees. Through performance management, outstanding employees can be recognized for their efforts such as promotion Where possible, create natural and complete work units. For example, employees can be allowed to create a section or an entire unit and not separates portions of work Issues of control management should be limited and more attention should be given to responsibility and accountability of their work. This makes them more autonomous and happy to achieve their personal and work goals. Employees should be given the opportunity to participate in work evaluation, performance and planning. Such opportunity gives room for personal growth and work itself. The management should give more roles and space to make decisions at the lower levels. This will make them more responsible and accountable to the top management. PART B Question One Corporate, division and functional level strategies are plans required in an organizational hierarchy. While the corporate level plan involves decisions that cover the entire organization on its structure, overall strategy, mission and goals, divisional plans include strategies for centers of business activities or product lines. Functional level plans are strategies that affect departments such as IT, operations, marketing and human resources. At the top of the hierarchy are corporate plans that include top management, advisory boards or executives who develop a framework for divisional managers to make divisional plans. It relates to competitive contact, reach, management practices and managing business interrelationships and activities. Both functional and divisional plans are aligned to the corporate plan with managers choosing to work with top management or other functional leaders. However, divisional plans relate to long-term goals and are required in differentiation and positioning products against rivals and anticipating changes in customer perceptions and technology. For example, Coke Company has divisions for soda, water and fruit juice which are levels of competitive advantage and practical coordination of operating units. Corporate plans can be customer satisfaction, profits and revenue but functional levels are involved in improving customer experience, saving money and making money. Functional level plans provide the goals for managers to aid the division in achieving its business level goals. For example, human resource at a functional level can retain or hire top employees in order to increase customer satisfaction and company profitability. Moreover, corporate level plans guide the functional levels and divisional units. In the Coke case, the functional level plans are input into the divisional and corporate levels which must be accomplished so that the strategy will be routed to success. Question Two Maslow’s theory provides for understanding of hierarchy of human needs towards fulfillment during work or outside work. The theory identifies five stages of needs in hierarchical form starting from physiological needs at the bottom of the pyramid to self-actualization needs at the top. In a typical organization, employees need satisfaction of different needs at different times during work and off work. The physiological needs of an employee include base salary, air and heat while their safety needs constitute job security, fringe benefits and safe work. The manager, by understanding these needs will know that base salary needs to be given priority over fringe benefits, supervisors or advancement. Employees also need the sense of belonging on issues like supervisors, co-workers, clients and work groups. On the other hand, esteem needs include more responsibilities, higher status and recognition. Finally, self-actualization involves growth and creativity, advancement and opportunities for training. Interestingly, as one goes up the ladder, fulfillment become more of motivators than hygiene factors as explained in the Herzberg’s two factory theory. The manager should use of this theory to determine what needs to be fulfilled first before others. For example, it would be important for the manager to provide safe work for employees before giving them high status or opportunities for training. Similarly, needs off the job need fulfillment too because employees will also need good food, water, pollution and violence free surrounding and community groups, friends and family and their approval as well as personal growth, hobbies and education. Question Three SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) provide a means of evaluating current goals, grand strategies and goals of the company. As a result, it helps in defining new strategies, goals, vision and mission of the company. The strategies to be formulated involve functional, business and corporate level strategies. For example, cost differentiation as a corporate strategy can be taken up to the business level by identifying the business areas that can save costs. At the functional level, reducing wastage and increasing responsibility can help reduce costs while increasing productivity and profitability. To succeed in implementing the strategies, changes may be required in information and control systems, human resources, organizational structure and culture. SWOT analysis identifies the key strategic factors that affect the internal and external environment. Strengths and weaknesses are influenced by value creation, synergy and core competencies. For example, Samsung electronics has strengths in core competencies as manufacturers of semiconductors and electronic appliances while Procter and Gamble prides in strong brand name. However, Samsung has lagged in the Smartphone market which is currently dominated by Apple and Huawei. On the other hand, P&G is highly dependent of Walmart and has little control on supplies. The external environment involves the global or national sphere which comprise of opportunities and threats. For instance, P&G aims at expanding to emerging markets like India and China while Samsung sees an opportunity to market its tablets and smartphones in India and Africa. Likewise, Samsung is being rivaled by Apple and Xiaomi as serious rivals while P&G is facing stiff competition from Huggies and Dove in promotion and advertising. Question Four Leaders are effective when they use or develop power to influence others based on their position within the organization. First, managers in the traditional management sense use coercive, reward and legitimate forms of power to change the behavior of employees. In legitimate power, subordinates accept the formal management position and show compliance. Reward power originates from the authority to reward through promotions, attention, praise, recognition and pay increases. Though employees may personally disagree with legitimate and reward power, they obey orders and generate compliance. Coercive power stems from an authority that recommends punishment. For example, managers with this power can make negative entries in the files of employees or can withhold pay rises. This can lead to workers disobeying orders or intentionally avoiding the need to execute certain instructions. This kind of power is likely to generate resistance from employees. Second, personal power such as expert power and referent is where people care, admire or respect the leader for their ideas. Under expert power, the leader has specific skills and special knowledge on tasks undertaken by followers. For example, an expert in a given field prevails on subordinates to get along. Referent power is about admiration, respect and command identification by subordinates. For example, workers may admire a supervisor from the way he or she handles them. Follower response in referent and expert power is commitment which is also important in overcoming fear of change. Question Five Fiedler argues based on contingency model, where three components can determine the use of relationship-oriented or task-oriented leadership. Task-oriented leadership emphasizes on work facilitation while relationship-oriented leadership facilitates interaction. The former focuses on tasks, roles and structure while the later dwells on motivation, well-being and relationships. In task oriented leadership, the priority is to produce desired results while the later desire positive relationships. Task leadership needs a clear plan and goal-setting to attain goals while relationship leadership needs communication from within and teamwork. The former require step-by-step plans, incentive or punishment system and strict use of schedules while relationship-oriented leadership demands frequent team meetings, casual interactions and communication. Also, task leadership creates more group efficacy as compared to relationship-oriented leadership that is tilted towards greater productivity. In relationship leadership, there is self-efficacy, stronger individual impact, greater team learning and greater cohesion within groups. Task leadership ensures that tasks are completed and deadlines are met and is good for team members who find it difficult to manage their time well. Moreover, employees in this type of leadership are focused on workplace procedures and can delegate for timely and good quality work. Relationship-oriented leadership encourages collaboration and good teamwork where employees can be rewarded with bonuses. Again, their work environment is not transparent and competitive but the leader cares much on the wellbeing of employees. The demerit is the resentment, boredom, dissatisfaction and personal conflicts that can easily lower productivity. On the contrary, team members in relationship leadership are prepared to take risks when the leader offers them the necessary support. Question Six Fiedler considers a ‘favorable situation’ when there is high leader position power, highly structured tasks and good leader-member relations. In extremely unfavorable or favorable situations, Fiedler shows that leaders in low leader position power are very effective. However, in intermediate favorability situations, leaders in high leader position power perform best. The effective leadership in the situation where the labor-member relations are good, the task structure is high, and the position power is strong is task-oriented leadership. This is because, in this type of leadership, the degree of confidence, respect and mutual trust is good between subordinates and the leader. The roles and work required are actively defined and put into structure, and alongside with the team progress is planned, organized and monitored. The task structure is also strong based on structure and clarity. Again, the power that is inherent in the leader occupying the position is strong. There are a number of tasks at hand that must be achieved with greater attention given to step-by-step solutions towards solving the problem. The leaders in this case have a great understanding on how the job is done and can delegate so that everything is done in productive and timely manner. However, it has the capability to cause retention and motivation problems due to its flaws in autocratic leadership and neglect of the wellbeing of the team. Read More