Motivational Theorists Essay

Team work is majorly important when organising, setting up or running a business. If employees and employers can’t organise themselves it causes conflicted between each other and the business might be affected by this. This could be because of disagreements of a topic, for example choosing a name for a product. This could cause tension between employees and put pressure on the manager. Team work is when a group of people come together to either discus or develop ideas. The groups can either be informal or formal. The main differences between these groups are that formal groups are more main stream businesses, for example Microsoft. Whereas team groups that are informal could be based upon close friends that are going on a Duke of Edinburg walk. However, because there are different organisations that have either formal or informal teams, this makes different structures depending on the different organisations involved. Informal groups are formed because the people involved feel the need for either: †¢Social interaction (sport events, birthdays) †¢To discuss different aspects of their business and the management skills †¢To discuss ideas regarding interests such as sports One of the main aims of the informal groups is to improve social needs, this will create motivation for the employees because they will feel more secure at work and they will have better communication skills. Although these informal groups are not set up by the management, they still have motivation as a useful factor. However, the aims of a formal group are different, this is because they seem more sophisticated and organised. This is because they are often organised because the group want to commit to long term and short term goals, therefore they have to be more committed and serious. Some of the groups are formed because the employees are working with similar goals, including: †¢Members feel committed and have a sense of ownership and respect for each other, including their other talents †¢The members almost always have a clear idea of their goals and aims †¢The members are motivated and egger to improve their businesses and their skills The members of the formal groups are not randomly selected, they are assessed because they need to have the same commitment and social skills as the other members in order not to bring the group down and cause it to be less organised. Teams are formed in organisations to help develop ideas that could potentially improve businesses. If teams are made then that means that there are more ideas involved and the business will be open to more options rather than one person putting in their opinions that could be based around the same thing. Teams are also formed to improve the contact and communication skills around the work place; it helps employees feel more comfortable with their surroundings and improves motivation for the staff. Year 13 applied team The year 13 applied class has organised a group in order to keep the organisation under control and more formal. Having this group in applied will help the year 13’s to become closer as a community. It will also improve social skills to a high extent which will gain valuable skills in the future when dealing with clients and customers. It will improve social skills because the students will have first-hand experience on what it is like exchanging ideas with their peers and team leader. It will force the students to get along with each other despite any social issues which prepare them for a future in business, making each student more professional. Having to discuss their opinions will also widen the students mind into exploring the different techniques that different people choose which means they will become more educated rather than keeping with the same technique that a student would use if they were to be working alone. The main aims of the DBS applied are: Usually organisations have similar objectives and aims, this is because profit related organisations want to make a profit and they want to event to be a success. However the aims will adjust to fit the event, for example one of the aims of a team building event might be to improve staff morale, whereas the aim of a product launch may be to raise awareness of a new product and attract new buyers. Every organisation and event will have an aim, either to make profit, be successful or be organised. The main aims of the DBS talent show are: †¢Raise awareness of the applied team †¢Make a profit to give to a local charity †¢To provide an enjoyable event for all participants and audience †¢To improve the school profile amongst the community †¢To ensure a smooth running event It is highly important for the DBS applied 13’s to have appropriate and SMART aims and objectives, this is because they help structure and organise the event making the chances of success greater than if they didn’t have aims and objectives. Benefits and limitations of team work Advantages Working with other students and employees can have benefits as well as limitations. The advantages and disadvantages of teams also need to be considered before deciding to transition to teams. The following table of team advantages and disadvantages is an adaptation of work by Medsker and Campion (1992).* This list can also be used by existing teams to self-evaluate their efficacy. (source /www.hf.faa.gov/) Having teams in a business can enhance the amount of work that is being submitted by the employees, this means that the business will benefit because they will have more work completed by a shorted dead line which saves time and money for new projects. An example of this is giving out leaflets to promote a product. If 10 people distribute the leaflets then it will take up less time than if it were one person giving out the information. Not only do teams benefit business and organisations, it also benefits individuals. This is because it improves communication levels and boosts confidence because the team members are working together and discussing their ideas. These are some team advantages and explanations: Team advantages Explanations Team members have the opportunity to learn from each other. This gives the employees the opportunity to embrace new ideas from different people; it also gives the opportunity to people to express ideas which mean other people can gather different information from difference aspects of the topic which will widen their mind frame. It gives chance to others to communicate with others. This will give the team members confidence in the work place because they will have better communication skills amongst themselves which also means that in the future they will be more likely to be able to get along with others in team work and amongst office hours. New approaches to tasks may be discovered. For any team, this is a benefit because different areas are looked at from the business plan. Because different people are working in the team there are many different ideas and tactics used which means new skills will be learnt and appreciated. Teams membership can provide social facilitation and support for difficult tasks and situations. This means that each team member is supported by their team mates, not only does this give confidence but it allows the plan to almost become bullet proof because if one of the team members are failing at a task there will be others involved to help. Disadvantages Although teams give both businesses and individuals they also have some limitations that come with them. For organisations there might be conflict between the team members therefore some team members might leave the company completely which will cost the business money because they will have to recruit new staff and pay for training and hold meetings about the event/program they are organising. This can also effect the views that team members have of each other, for example the completion rates might become too high (many members want to take leadership or the team) which might cause conflict between friends and colleges. Below is a table of some limitations the team work brings into a working environment: Disadvantages Explanations Some individuals are not compatible with team work.some individuals see team work as demotivating because it doesn’t fit into the way that they work, this might cause confusion amongst these types of people and it might cause them to lag behind and become over loaded with work they have to complete, this could cause the team to slip and cause problems. Some members may experience less motivating jobs as part of a team.There is almost a hierarchy in a team for example, there is the team leader that has the most responsibilities in the team and then the work load becomes less. Some workers are highly motivated by heavy workloads and high responsibility (theory X and Y), if a team member who works like this has little responsibilities then they are likely to become demotivated. However it could become the opposite way and a work member could be pressured by the amount of work they have to complete and they might feel unappreciated and stressed which could cause the team to fall. Teams may be time-consuming due to need for coordination and consensus.This could cause conflict with the team member’s social life because of the workloads that they are being given. It is important for a business to allow their team members to have a good amount of social life in order for them to work to a high standard. If the workloads given are highly time consuming then it might take over time and run into the employees leisure time which will affect the levels of happiness and could cause them to become demotivated and their working levels will drop. Impact of leadership In every business and organisation there are different ways of leaderships. Leadership is the way that the managers and team leaders motivate and control their employees, without them then it workers would not know what to do and the businesses will lose money and staff rapidly because of the lack of motivation and skills their employees have. There are five main management styles in business are organisations, these are made up of: †¢Autocratic †¢Democratic †¢Laissez-faire †¢Proactive †¢Reactive Autocratic Each one of the above are differently structured in order to fit the employee’s needs. They all can be related to the theories of Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor. Autocratic style workers are clear on their tasks that they need to complete, however these workers need a controlling environment to become motivated the workers are not quite focused. The manager of an autocratic worker gives the employees a set of tasks to do and they expect the workers to do exactly what they are told and when they are told to do it. There is hardly no opportunity for the autocratic workers to give their opinions to the manager and there is no discussions about the tasks that they have been given, it is a very controlled environment. Autocratic workers can be related to the theory X and Y (however the autocratic workers are only applied to X not Y) An example of an autocratic management style could be a bakery store, as the business became more popular and the demands became higher, the manager decided to become more forceful with the employees to make sure deadlines were complete on time and there was no money lost. Because it was a small business with such high demands then the manager would decide that there would be no room for discussion on the tasks the manager gave them. There are some limitations of an autocratic ran business, autocrats could lead to little motivation. This is because the employees have no say in the business that they are working on which could make the employees feel like they have little importance in the they are working in and they could feel highly pressured into doing some things that they really disagree on. This gives a sense of poor ownership and commitment to the business. Another limitation could be that, if a business is at a peak season and the demands are higher than usual there will be more pressure put on the employees and the manager might find that it is hard to cut the deadlines back even shorter than usual because there is already so much work that are on strict deadlines. Being an autocratic manager could also affect the business over all, this is because new ideas that employees have would not get across to the manager which means new improvements that could enhance the businesses income will not be acted upon. Having an autocratic based business could give some benefits towards not only the staff but the customer’s and consumers. Some examples of organisations that benefit from an autocratic based business are: †¢The armed forces and the police †¢Medical areas like hospitals and sergeants †¢Fire fighters †¢Managers of internships These are all organisations that are almost always under pressure and have little time to discuss the different options available. For example, where there are health and safety issues going on, surgeons can’t afford to spend their time on consulting other people first, they must act fast. This works out well for them because this means that more lives are saved and the business profile is high and caries a good reputation. Managers of internships often use the autocratic way of managing staff because they are often inexperienced, shy and have little confidence. Having a forceful manager controlling them will allow the workers to because confident at work because they will be able to get on with their work. It will also prepare them for the future work because the manager will let them know what is expected from them in other business. One other thing is that the workers will have less time to communicate because the work levels and demands are high. This means less time for d istractions and more motivation for work. Democratic Democratic management is much more lenient than the autocratic style of management this is because the employees have a chance to get their opinions across. They also have an opinion on how the business is run. However, this doesn’t mean that their opinions will change the company or organisation. There are still similarities between democratic and autocratic leaders because there is still a leader that makes the overall decision despite what the employees say. The democratic leaders often set a date in which they take time to talk to all of the employees who have an input about the business; this could be a positive or negative approach. The reason why the manager carefully set a date for this is because it takes a lot of time and patience to listen and take in all the different opinions of people. It doesn’t just take time to listen and observe to the employees, it also takes careful analysing to decide to take action and change the businesses ways because of the empl oyees’ choice. This is also because the manager has to go through the different levels of the hierarchy, therefore this can become very time consuming. Another disadvantage of having a democratic manager is that there will always be either a winner or a loser in some sense. This is because the employees point either gets across and there are significant changes made in the business for the employees benefit, or the managers chooses not to change anything which leaves the employees feeling ignored and demotivated. This can give the employees low motivation because the employees who wanted a change in the work place would have worked relatively hard and spent time planning and prepping for the meeting and the employees would feel like they wasted their valuable time for no reason. However, having a democratic manager is not all negative, having this type of working area can mean the workers are highly motivated for the fact that they feel valued because the managers take part in what they think about the business, and their opinions. Where as if they are not listened to many of the workers would feel like they are just there to work and have little contribution to the company and have no control over anything. Another positive aspect of democratic workers is that when the managers do listen to them, and there is a change made the workers feel proud and they feel like they have made commitments to the work place. This also means that a good relationship is made between the manager and the employees. The employees have more respect for the manager because they took the time to listen to them; in return the employees are likely to work harder. An example of this is, when new initiatives are considered at recruitment consultancy, Longbridge international, they are discussed and agreed collectively, almost 89% of the staff believes they make a valuable contribution to the company and 88% feel that they have/make a difference. (source: applied business text book) This example supports the fact that the employees are motivated by a democratic leader because they are listened to and respected, rather than a manager that doesn’t let them have any control over the work area or themselves. Laissez-faire Laissez-faire management program is a hand off approach, this means that the employees are free to work as they like and they are not put under pressure by their managers like other motivation and management theories. The managers who work like this will potentially give the employees the materials they need to complete the tasks that have been set for them. Laissez-faire workers have their own goals and are self-motivated. However, these workers must be highly experienced and motivated and who have a need for achievement to work because there is no manager pressuring for work. If an inexperienced worker comes into an atmosphere like this it is highly likely that the company will suffer with poor communication and lack of work on deadlines. This could happen because employees are not used to have a very free environment and they might take advantage of this. This type of management styles is highly popular within more creative businesses, this is because they are allowed to make up d ifferent styles and work by themselves. Some examples of Laissez-faire companies could be: †¢Graphic designer †¢Magazine editor motivational theorists †¢Decorator The work that is more artistic and creative is supposed to reflect of the employee themselves therefore this is why Laissez-faire management style is better because they are allowed this freedom whereas in autocratic and democratic environments they are not which means every ones work will almost be the same. However, the businesses that recruit these types of workers need to carefully think about whom they choose, in interviews they will commonly ask questions relating to their work techniques and they will analyse if the workers can work freely and don’t rely on the managers for advice, help and pressure. By asking these questions they are saving money and time for the business. If they were to recruit a worker that is cauterised as an X theory worker then they will slack off and not complete work on time. An advantage of working like this is that most people don’t like having someone looking over their shoulder constantly, so a laissez-faire management style promotes trust in the workers. The workers also have a feel of importance at work because they aren’t constantly being looked after and they have control of their work life as well as their social and leisure time. Another advantage is that this kind of style is positive only in the case when the employees are very responsible and in case of creative jobs where a person is guided by his own aspirations. In these cases, less direction is required so this style can be good. However there are some limitations to have such a free flowing environment, these can be because an laissez-faire management style makes it easy for workers to do a substandard job or to slack off entirely, and it usually takes a very high-visibility problem to bring such workers to light. This style has more disadvantages because usually it is the result of the lack of interest of the leader that leads to his adopting this style. It proves poor management and makes the employees lose their sense of direction and focus. The disinterest of the management and leadership causes the employees to become less interested in their job and their dissatisfaction increases.