Information to read: Motivation The directing function involves applying the res
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Question
Information to read: Motivation
The directing function involves applying the resources that management has mobilized so that the goals or the organization are achieved. Once again, we will focus on the human side of the problem and ask the question how we can get our employees to do what it is we want from them.
The answer has changed over the years. If we had asked a manager a century ago, he likely would have answered that he was paying his employees and therefore they would do what was required. Thinking about it, his answer has some truth in it. If an employee fails to work up to some minimum standard, they are terminated. However, is the minimum all that we want, or would we prefer that the employee worked their best? Managers today would say the latter, and, therefore, it is important that we understand employees and how to motivate them to achieve.
There are a large number of studies conducted by management scientists that shed light on this issue. The oldest and most influential of them all was developed by Abraham Maslow. Some of you may have learned about the theory in other contexts and, if you continue your education, you will likely hear about it again, in psychology, sociology and other classes in business.
Maslow observed that people act the way they do in order to meet their needs. Further, he identified five broad categories of needs.
Physiological Needs. This is the need for food, shelter clothing and the other necessities we discussed at the beginning of the class.
Safety and Security Needs. People need to feel safe from harm or its threat. They also need to have assurance that physiological needs met today will continue to be met tomorrow.
Love and Belonging Needs. This is the human need to be part of something larger than ourselves, be it a family, a tribe, a gang or a club of some sort. It is our need to interact socially with others.
Ego and Esteem Needs. People need to feel good about themselves and have other think highly of them.
Self-Actualization Needs. This is an odd term that Maslow coined. It refers to the need to reach one's full potential.
The needs are often depicted as a pyramid with physiological needs at the bottom and self-actualization needs at the top. This is because Maslow further noted that needs are met hierarchically. That is, people tend to strive to meet needs that are lower on the pyramid first, and that it is only when these needs are substantially fulfilled that higher level needs become important. As a corollary, once a need is completely satisfied, it no longer motivates. As a silly example, if I offered Bill Gates a dollar to go buy me some coffee, I doubt that he would accept. On the other hand, a student in one of my classes might be tempted.
Some additional comments are in order. Maslow said that lower level needs must be substantially fulfilled before higher level needs become important. The word substantially is relevant. In practice, all of our physiological needs might not be fulfilled, yet we do seek at least some higher level needs. Second, we need to recognize that human beings are complex and that individuals may have different degrees of need in each category. For example, we may know some people who are very social and always seem to need to be among friends. Others may spend more time by themselves. Finally, Maslow's hierarchy should not be viewed as a lifetime climb toward the top. Life takes many turns and where an individual is in terms of needs varies. Consider a highly satisfied employee striving for self-actualization. The situation might change tomorrow if the employee is downsized. Concerns may then center on physiological needs.
Maslow's theory is extremely useful in understanding our employees. If managers can identify the needs that an employee is trying to meet, they can offer opportunities to meet such needs based on the employee's performance. If an employee is striving to meet physiological needs, opportunities to make more money might move him to give his best. Raises, bonuses and overtime linked to good performance might be very interesting to such an individual.
Safety and security needs can be met in the work place through a safe environment, free of hazards. However, the benefits programs that are offered also address this issue. Health insurance gives the employee the security that savings will not be eaten up by an illness. Retirement plans ease the concern that the employee will not have enough money for his physiological needs in old age.
Love and belonging needs are addressed by building community in the workplace. This involves creating opportunities for employees to interact socially with each other. Company parties, picnics and athletic teams were traditional devices. Managers can also address the social need by sharing information with employees. Newsletters and group meetings give employees a feeling of belonging to the organization.
Ego and esteem needs can be met in many ways. Some are expensive, such as promotions (to which a salary increase is attached), while others have more modest cost. Employee-of-the-Month programs, for instance, often accompany recognition with a certificate and a small prize. Some methods of recognition are virtually costless for management. Simply letting employees know that they are doing good work and are appreciated has a big impact.
Finally, if managers think that an employee may be striving for self-actualization, they can offer opportunities for the employee to improve his or her skills. Training and expanded job responsibilities are indicated here.
The value of Maslow's theory is apparent. If managers can understand the needs of their employees, they may be able to motivate them to give their best effort to reach company goals.
Another interesting perspective on employee behavior comes to us from Frederick Herzberg. Herzberg went into the workplace and asked employees what they liked about their jobs and what they disliked. Likes included things like recognition, advancement, achievement and money (I do really well here). Employee dislikes included company policy, poor management, bad working conditions and money (I can't get by on what I make here). Herzberg looked at the lists and noticed that, with the exception of money, the lists were mutually exclusive. That is, things on one list did not appear on the other in a negative form. For example, while employees remarked that they disliked poor management, they did not mention good management as something they liked.
Herzberg concluded that there were two different things at work here. Herzberg called the items that employees liked motivators. When present, they caused the employee to be motivated, but their absence did not cause him to be dissatisfied (or de-motivated). Conversely, the items that employees disliked were termed maintenance factors. These were items that caused dissatisfaction, but did not necessarily motivate people when they were corrected.
Why is money on both lists? The reason may be that the word money is used in a different sense. In terms of maintenance factors, money seems to represent Maslow's physiological needs. As a motivator, it is linked more to recognition, as salary levels are often tied to the value and performance of the employee to the organization.
A final study that is worth visiting was done by Douglas McGregor. McGregor's questions focused on management, specifically, how management assumptions shaped the management style that he or she used. He divided managers into two basic types. Theory X managers were those who brought to the workplace the perception that people were inherently lazy and would not work unless forced to do so. Such a perception translated into a "telling" management style that is characterized by close supervision. It typically has long lists of penalties to deter employees from slack behavior.
Theory Y managers brought the opposite view to the workplace. They believed that work was natural and that employees would work and be creative if given the opportunity. Such a belief led to a vision that managers should be facilitators, creating conditions that allowed employees to work. Little supervision was necessary, nor did penalties need to be emphasized.
Which style is better? Many of us are tempted to say Theory Y. However, this is because of our own preference and our view that we match a Theory Y manager's ideas about workers. The real answer is it depends. If the workforce is immature, a Theory X manager may work best. On the other hand, for employees who need no prodding to work, a Theory Y manager is preferred.
One last theory is worth mentioning, if only to make sure that we understand what it is not. William Ouchi developed a management theory called Theory Z. The temptation is to assume that it has some relationship to McGregor's work and perhaps represents some alternative middle approach to management. This is absolutely wrong. Although the title may be similar, the focus of the theory is completely different.
When Japan emerged as a formidable competitor in the global marketplace in the 1970's, there was much interest in why Japanese firms had been able to capture such a large part of the market. One element of difference was management style. To name just a few elements of difference, Japanese firms provided lifetime employment to its workers, promoted them slowly and tied compensation to corporate performance in the form of bonuses. U.S. companies, on the other hand, tended to have higher employee turnover, more rapid advancement and correlated compensation to individual performance. Many of the differences were culture bound (with Japanese culture being more group oriented and American more individualistic), so it was obvious that Japanese practices could not simply be grafted onto an American workplace. Ouchi attempted to bridge the differences by suggesting a middle path between Japanese and American management styles. Some of his ideas, for instance those calling for more worker input, have been adopted by U.S. firms with good success.
Case: WHAT WENT WRONG WITH JULIA
Julia Simpson had been working for Howard's Apparel for two years, and Marcia Howard, the owner, had considered her to be one of the company's important assets. Julia was intelligent, had an avid interest in her job and had excellent work habits. Although she was just a sales clerk, Julia had, on her own initiative, undertaken several extra tasks which made an important contribution to the company. Marcia often sought Julia's advice (which was often excellent) and enjoyed talking with her about issues that affected the store. That seemed to be the old Julia. For the last six months, Simpson seemed to have undergone a complete change. She seemed distracted at work and was often late. Never did she spend an additional minute at the shop after her official hours were over, and she was even surly with customers on a few occasions.This problem with Julia came at a particularly bad time. Howard's Apparel had recently opened a second store, and almost all of Marcia's time was devoted to it. In fact, she had to hire a new manager for the original store to absorb that part of the workload. The person selected had been on the job for almost six months and had been excellent. Unfortunately, the problem with Julia came up, and Marcia initially suspected it had something to do with the new manager's style. While it was true that she was less open with the shop staff than Marcia had been, the new manager really knew the clothing business and seemed to make an extra effort to be fair to all. She was especially solicitous of Julia, who seemed to respond negatively, if at all. Finally, Marcia decided to talk to Julia. After having ascertained that there were no personal problems which contributed to the situation, Marcia asked Julia what was wrong. In return, she received a litany of complaints against the new manager, all of which were unfair, as well as a complaint that Julia's pay was too low. Marcia keyed on the latter statement as the potential root of the problem. After all, Julia hadn't had a raise in over a year. Although it bothered her to give Julia more money at a time when her performance was questionable, Marcia decided to raise her salary to $10.00 per hour (a $1.00 raise). The situation failed to improve to any degree, and Julia's performance remained unsatisfactory. Finally, there was a major altercation between Julia and her manager, which resulted in Julia being dismissed. Marcia supported this action, although she regretted the loss of a member of her staff who had been so helpful in the early stages of developing the business.
While you are having a cocktail with Marcia on a chilly November evening, she relates this tale to you. Then she asks you to help her understand what went wrong with Julia.
Answers should be detailed, specific and addressed the question asked. Thank you!
Explanation / Answer
Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.
(Answer) It appears that just like Fredrick Herzberg’s experiment; Julia too had a long list of dissatisfactions arising from the workplace. Herzberg’s observation, an addition of good management did not help motivate the people who had “poor management” on their list, Julia too was not motivated by a better pay. This could be one explanation. Furthermore, if one considers Maslow’s hierarchy, then Julia may have had an esteem or ego boost with the pay raise. However, an extra dollar an hour may not have been satisfactory to the physiological needs that Julia had. Considering that she was an assiduous worker and a poor work quality gave her a dollar’s worth raise, it may have been too little too late.
If Marcia truly felt that Julia’s contributions to the beginning of the business were that pivotal, a little extra appreciation in satisfying her self-esteem, security of any of Maslow’s levels should have been attempted long ago.
A dollar’s worth raise after a whole year may have in fact insulted Julia. It would be like receiving a free pizza for climbing a mountain. When the reward does not match the effort, it could severely affect the temperament, attitude and stance of an employee.
Furthermore, just like an employee needs to put a continuous effort towards being a great employee, management too would have to put a continuous effort in keeping an employee happy. An employee is not expected to stop after having worked on a great project. The next project would come along the next working day. Similarly, the management needs to offer encouragement regularly. They do not have to be too expensive; they have to help uplift the mood and attitude of the employee.