Essentially as a manager you need to keep in touch with sufficient detail to know what is going on. Once you have found out, you can then make arrangements for the matter to be dealt with. The great advantage of regular casual informal contact with people is that they learn how to communicate the key points of importance to you.
Outputs
All teams have to produce results. However, individual members of teams often do not seem to know what the overall team is trying to do. Consequently we frequently find team members either not pulling in the same direction or not giving their best effort.
It is important therefore, to sit down with the team and discuss what the outputs are. Too often teams start by working on the inputs. They will tell you what jobs have to be done, how many hours have to be allocated, and how much money has to be spent, what the problem issues are and so on. All of these are concerned with inputs. Therefore the whole team needs to meet together to focus on outputs and look at the forces which are likely to get in the way. Once these forces are listed, an action plan to combat them can be developed.
Charting results
It is important for a team to see how it is performing. Sporting teams can quickly get feedback: they can tell whether they are winning or losing by counting the score. A work team needs to be able to do the same.
Therefore identify the measures by which the team can see how it is performing. Some of these will be straightforward, such as costs against budget. Others may be more difficult to work out, such as overall productivity. Equally, not all teams will have the revenue function against which to chart their income. However, all teams can measure their performance in terms of achieving particular objectives within specific time frame and budget.
Team communication
The linking task of the manager is to coordinate all the 'players' on the team and to make sure that each member knows what the others are doing. This requires some discipline and the planning of regular meetings. It means putting meeting dates into diaries as much as twelve months ahead and keeping to those dates. It means convincing people that these meetings are important and that everyone must attend. It means publishing regular minutes of meeting to all the team members with updated actions plan and progress report.
One of the best ways to develop communication skills in'-t your team is to encourage individuals or sub-groups in the team to give small presentations at meetings. These may be only half an hour long but they enable everyone to get up and show what they are doing and what they have achieved. This not only helps communication but motivation as well. Therefore organise as many presentations as you can on as many topics as possible so that people become well informed. In the process of doing this you will be developing your team members as excellent communicators
Motivational mechanics
In this second part, I focus on the theories and research into Human motivation at work that are now a recognized part of classical managerial thought:
- “Hierarchy of Need “ theory
- “The Hygiene Factor” theory
2.1 “Hierarchy of Need“ theory
Perhaps not theory of motivation has been so influential on the thinking of managers as Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’. In essence it’s suggests that a person is motivated not by external motives such as rewards or punishments but an inner programme of needs. These needs are arranged in sets. When one is satisfied, another comes into play. A satisfied need ceases to motivate. Maslow sought to establish some sort of hierarchy of prepotency in the realm of basic human needs, and to comment upon the difference this hierarchy would make to our understanding and motivation.
He identified fives sets of needs (see the figures n° 1 below), which he saw as being in a dynamic relationship or hierarchy. If a person has an endless supply of bread, at once other needs in dominating the organism. And when these in turn are satisfied, yet higher needs emerge, and so on. This is what Maslow meant by asserting that the basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency.
Figure n° 1: ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’
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Physiological needs: The concept of physiological drives has usually been taken as the starting point for motivational theory. Here Maslow advocated the use of the world need as an alternative to drive, the body’s natural effort to maintain a constant normal state of the bloodstream, coupled with the finding that appetites in the sense of preferential choices of food are a fairly efficient indicator of actual deficiencies in the body.
Safety need: When the physiological needs are relatively well satisfied, a new set of needs emerges centred upon the safety of the organism. Owing to the inhibition by adults of any signs of reaction to threat or danger this aspect of human behaviour is more easily observed in children, who react in a total manner to any sudden disturbance, such as being dropped, startled by loud noises.
Social need: If the physiological and safety needs are met. Maslow suggested, then the needs for love, affection and belonging-ness will emerge as the dominant centre of motivation. The person concerned will feel keenly the absence of friends or family; he or she will strive for affectionate relations with people and for 'a place in the group'. We may best call this set the 'Social Needs'.
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Esteem need: This category in Maslow's thought includes the need or desire both for a high evaluation of self (self-respect or self-esteem) and for the esteem of others.
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The need for self-actualisation : Maslow defined self-actualisation as man's desire for self-fulfilment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualised in what he is potentially . . . the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. The clear emergence of these needs usually rests upon prior satisfaction of the physiological, safety, love and esteem needs.
Maslow’s theory is widely used for explaining why different needs and motives may be expected to operates in different situation, despite the fact that Maslow was so preoccupied with the individual, the theory as understood by many managers doesn't stress individual differences or suggest the idea that each person will have a unique set of needs and values. Rather it induces in them the on-the-average way of thinking about individuals rather than groups.
Yet the five sets of need in the hierarchy still serve a most useful purpose. Together they form a sketch map no more of individual needs for you to consider as a leader in the relation to each member of your team.
“The Hygiene Factor” theory
'Job satisfaction' is a common phrase these days. It stems directly or indirectly from the influential motivational research of another American professor of psychology, Frederick Herzberg. Although much controversy surrounds his ideas he made an important and influential contribution to our understanding of motivation at work.
In essence Herzberg made two claims. First, he said that he had found evidence through studying the components of job satisfaction that people were in fact motivated by such 'higher' needs as achievement, recognition and self-actualisation. Secondly, he claimed that a practical programme of job enrichment in industry and commerce would create more job satisfaction by strengthening what he called the 'motivators'.
Herzberg expounds on this theory at length and provides much supporting evidence in his book ‘work and the nature man’, he observes that the set of factor that produce job satisfaction are separate and distinct from set of factor that produce job dissatisfaction. In effect there are two independent axes (see figure 2 below):
Figure 2: ‘How Motivation / Hygiene Factors correlate to job satisfaction’
Herzberg thinks of the one axis as the motivator axis. In this dimension the employee seeks personal growth from the task being performed; however, absence of this growth does not cause pain. The other axis is the hygiene axis. In this dimension the employee tries to avoid pain from the environment; however, avoidance of this pain or the environment issues that cause the pain does not produce satisfaction.
Some of the issues reported in Herzberg research as causing increasing levels of satisfaction are:
- Possibility of growth
- advancement
- responsibility
- Recognition (of work)
- Achievement
Some of the issues cited as causing increasing levels of dissatisfaction are:
- Security
- Status
- Relationship with subordinates
- Relationship with peers
- Salary
- Work condition
- Relationship with supervisor
- Supervision
Herzberg’s hygiene theory has become part of mainstream tradition in management thought. Whether or not he was right about the ‘Hygiene Factors’ especially salary, remain to be seen. But this general point that there are factors around the job which can cause dissatisfaction if they are not right, but have weak power as positive motivators, seems to me to be well-founded. I have known low morale life is available. Conversely, I have seen very high morale when working condition was unavoidably awful.
Compensation
To ensure a high retention rate of key staff we could adopt a policy of benefits. It could include bonus, profit sharing, and stock options for every outstanding employee. The company could adopt also external equity in its salary structure policy, which means that company’s salaries are always above those of its competitors.
Recruitment strategies
In the third part, I detail the processes of the selection and Human Resource strategies
There is proverb saying that “you can’t make a silk purse of a sow’s ear”. This holds true in context of an organisation’s human resources strategy, since without the right people in the right place the human resources strategy will be expanding effort on making good the shortfall rather than capitalising on the asset and leveraging for optimum organisation performance.
In recent years selection in the UK has been the focus of much improvement as organisations recognise the pivotal role it plays in the overall human resources strategy. It is pivotal, however, in more than simply the sense that the quality of the people will determine the quality of the organisation. There is the role that recruitment plays in shaping people's expectations and conditioning their attitudes and contribution on entry, and in gathering a rich source of information on people's skills, values, motives etc,
The purpose of selection is to match people to work. It is the most important element in any organisation’s management of people simply because it not possible to optimise the effectiveness of human resources, by whatever method, if there is a less than adequate match.
It is important when choosing the technique to focus on the aspect which it is intended to measure. There are numerous techniques to assist in the recruitment and selection of candidates to define the natural competencies, acquired competencies, adapting or performing competencies:
- Natural competencies can be identified trough the use of personality tests or interviews.
- The acquired competencies lend themselves to identification through techniques such as the application form and curriculum vitae, ability tests, and structured interviews. Similarly work simulation or telephone screening can also be used to identify the acquired competencies.
- Techniques suitable for the adapting competencies include personality testing, structured behavioural interviewing, and structured situational interviewing. Assessment centres, which comprise a range of techniques such as testing, interviewing and exercises, can have individual components of the assessment centre targeted on natural, required and adapting competencies.
- Biodata are suitable for identifying natural, acquired and adapting competencies but the nature of the technique means that it is not possible to identify which particular competency is being identified, since it works on matching rather than analysis. Generally speaking, clearly defined requirements such as experience or qualifications which come under the acquired competencies are suitable for identification through explicit measurements such as application forms or straightforward interviews or tests of ability. The less visible aspects, such as personality characteristics which are to be found in the natural competencies, are better identified through indirect or subtle techniques such as testing. The adapting competencies are more suited to identification through dynamic techniques, such as interviewing, which enable elements to be explored on an interactive basis, but personality testing can identify the propensity to be adaptable, and assessment centre exercises and work simulations can attempt to replicate the real workplace dynamics.
Conclusion
With these three parts we have a good focus on the methods and skills to develop and to choose your team with the aim to increase productivity, higher levels of commitment and output, improved cooperation, better communication, more ideas and creativity, and generally a higher level of energy and motivation.
Bibliography
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Belbin, M ‘Management Teams’, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1981.
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Davies, R V. ‘The team Management Handbook’, TMS Development International, York, 1989 and 1993.
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Hollyforde, S and Whiddett, S ‘The Motivation Handbook’; CIPD publications, 2002.
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Fulop, L and Linstead, S (1999) ‘Management: A Critical Text’ Chapter 7: Managing Motivation, Basingtoke: Macmillan.
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Plumbley, P., ‘ Recruitment and Selection’, Institute of Personal Management, 1974
Team Management
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