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Leadership and motivation
Employee engagement sies college of management studies working paper series
Employee engagement sies college of management studies working paper series
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To be considered an effective leader one has to have the ability to prompt the group or team to obtain attain a quality level of work, productivity and some level of satisfaction in the job being done (Durbin, 2010, p. 98). Whether one is a natural “Problem Solver” or “Developer” type of leader, there is an underlying trait that all successful leaders seem to share; this is the ability to motivate or impel others to action. For example, the CEO of Coca-Cola Inc. Muhtar Kent , was once questioned if visiting stores and manufacturing facilities(as well as other stops along the supply chain) was considered prudent use of his time. Kent’s response was that it is time well spent if it helps to “motivate his employees” (Ignatius, 2011). Clearly Kent understood that motivation of his employees was an important component of the success of Coca Cola, Inc. Effective Motivators can use different motivational theories and strategies in the development of their skills in rallying employees to work at the highest level possible. These include Expectancy Theory, Goal Theory and Positive Reinforcement.
There are two main theories that can be used to understand action based on motivation, Expectancy Theory and Goal Theory (Durbin, 2010, p. 286). Both theories if understood can be used to increase quality of leadership and motivational skills at the managerial level. Expectancy Theory is a process type theory based on return on investment. In other words, if a worker expended a great effort for “X” amount of work, that worker will expect to be rewarded by how much effort they put into the task or project. What this theory signifies is that a person is most apt to volunteer for a project in which they feel they can “handle the most” and ...
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By studying and gaining understanding of Expectancy and Goal Theory as well as positive reinforcement and recognition, a leader can learn to become a motivator when the need arises and help employees rise to challenges once thought unobtainable.
Works Cited
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Dubrin, A. (2010). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills (6th ed., p. 98, 286, 290). E-edition: Cengage Learning.
Ignatius, A. (2011). Motivator in chief. Harvard Business Review, 89(10), 18.
Sadri,G. & Bowden, R. (2011). Meeting employee requirements: Maslow's hierarchy of needs is still a reliable guide to motivating staff. Industrial Engineer: IE, 43(10), 44-48.
Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2012). Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin
Pierce, Jon L. and John W. Newstrom (2011) 6th edition. Leaders and the Leadership Process.
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Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 1-19. Retrieved from http://www.blackdiamond.dk/HDO/Organisation_Gary_Yukl_Leadership_in_Organizations.pdf
Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled, a person seeks to fulfil the next one, and so on. The earliest and most widespread version of Maslow's (1943, 1954) hierarchy of needs includes five motivational needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.
To become a truly effective leader, one must encapsulate the various behaviors related to the aforementioned course learnings in his/her persona and demonstrate such behaviors daily. This course has allowed me to identify four behaviors that all leaders must portray to be effective. The first of which is that a leader must be inspirational. To do so, a leader must set the appropriate vision and direction for the organization and provide a path to achieving defined goals. Additionally, a leader must induce the proper levels of motivation so that each employee has sufficient incentive to work towards the organization’s goals. As discussed in the class, motivation can be accomplished by factors such as rewarding hard work and providing the correct opportunities to employees. While these are motivating in that employees desire to be fairly compensated and to be doing work they deem valuable, inspiration comes more from organizational culture. A leader will be inspirational by setting a tone that appreciates each employee’s contribution, no matter how small in scale it is. Further, employees are inspired when they work collaboratively in a group setting and can capitalize on individual strengths to drive organizational goals.
Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy (2009). Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (6th Ed). New York, NY McGraw-Hill Irwin
Research has shown that motivation in an employee is an important factor which determines his performance. Motivation is the “driving force within individuals” (Mullins, 2007, p. 285). It is the concerned with finding out the reasons which shape and direct the behaviour of the individuals. The people act to achieve something so that they can satisfy some needs (Gitman and Daniel, 2008). It is important for the manager to understand this motivation of individual employees in order to inspire them and devise an appropriate set of incentives and rewards which would satisfy the needs that they have individually (Kerr, 2003). Once these needs are expected to be met in return for some specific behaviour or action, they would work more diligently to have that behaviour in them and to achieve that objective (Meyer and Hersovitch, 2001). Since it would lead to early and fuller achievement of the company objectives as the individual would work more diligently, it would lead to better organizational performance (Wiley, 1997).
There is no shortage of motivational theories, just as there is none for leadership theories; however there are a few particularly important ones. It is interesting to note that even some of the most notable ideas of motivation are nothing more than untested hypotheses with simple anecdotal observations as a backbone that has served for years of...
Furthermore, there are three theories which explain the different factors in how employees are motivated based on their needs. The first theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, was proved by Abraham Maslow in the years of 1943 and 1954 (McLeod, 2013). Maslow believed that society developed their motivations depending on their needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in which five motivational needs( self-actualization,esteem, belongingness and love, safety, and psychological) are demonstrated in a hierarchy pyramid. The five motivational needs are divided into three categories(basic, psychological, and
If motivation is driven by the existence of unsatisfied needs, then it is worthwhile for a manager to understand which needs are the more important for individual employees. In this regard, Abraham Maslow developed a model in which basic, when a need is mostly satisfied it no longer motivates and the next higher need takes its place.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C.F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.
The function of manager is to complete a task on time. The task or project may be very simple or vastly complex and technically challenging. Where, a manager must find ways to motivate the people working on the task. In order to understand how to motivate the people, a manager must also understand the difference between the management and the leadership. An understanding of the motivation methods, including the traditional theories from the early to mid 21st century to more modern theories of motivation, is ...
During his life and in modern days, Maslow’s Hierarchy has been used to enhance leadership in business settings. Many motivational enterprises have taken the Hierarchy of Needs and adapted them to teach leaders how to help their employees achieve a high level of motivation. A company named Ovation Incentives trains that “an employee needs their basic needs such as their salary and work conditions to be fulfilled first before reaching high level needs such as feeling part of something bigger within an organization” (Stead,