Page 288 - DMGT106_MANAGING_HUMAN_ELEMENTS_AT_WORK

Managing Human Element at Work

Notes Motivation is at the heart of how innovative and productive things are done within work
organizations. This chapter focuses on the basic motivational factors that can energize a person’s
work and help him decide on the right action based on his requirements, and how motives are
learnt through experience. Several theories have evolved to help explain different facets of
motivation. Behaviour, in general, is directed by different needs. These needs can cause people
to seek out experiences that enrich their lives or they can trigger behaviour to avoid threatening
conditions and feelings of deprivation. Beyond human needs are the acquired tastes for specific
motives. A different explanation for motivation focuses on expectancies, or people’s expectation
about whether they can affect performance outcomes and how closely the expected rewards
are linked to performance. People also consider the equity of how they are treated, and their
evaluations help determine whether they will be motivated or demotivated.
The Initiating Structure represents the leadership behaviour involved in directing the
organization, helping it to define its goals and structure for execution including the ability to
understand the actions others can act upon.

From these two dimensions, it is possible to generalize three basic functions that a leader
performs:
1. Organizational

2. Interpersonal
3. Decisional
The organizational function involves the organizational structure and the selection of people
who operate within this structure. It involves various units or segments and the control of
internal and external communication flows. The leader has to make certain that the participants
in the organization and related groups external to the organization are knowing and working
well together.
The interpersonal function involves the morale of the organization. It reflects the degree of
concern about the humanness of the organization. It requires that the leader pay attention to
individual concerns.

The decisional function involves the making of decisions that must be made in order for the
organization to achieve its goals. This is the traditional function that has been associated with
leadership.

13.1 Motivation

The term motivation is derived from the Latin word movere meaning “to move”. Motivation
represents “those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of
voluntary actions that are goal-oriented”. Managers need to understand these psychological
processes if they are to successfully guide employees towards accomplishing organizational
objectives.
13.1.1 Need-Performance Cycle

Although a few human activities occur without motivation, nearly all conscious behaviour is
motivated or caused. It requires no motivation to grow hair, but getting a haircut requires
some motivation. Management’s job is to identify and activate employee motives towards task
performance. The relationship between need and performance is illustrated in Figure 13.1 .The
model in Figure 13.1 suggests that needs create tensions that are modified by one’s environment
to cause certain wants. These wants propel individuals (drive) to take actions to satisfy the
needs and release the tension depending upon the incentives available.

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