Managing, Developing And Motivating People: Key Theories And Practices

1. After knowing that you have taken Leading, Managing, and Developing People, your manager requested you to help address employee satisfaction problems in your company.

Based on your knowledge, choose one content theory of motivation and one process theory of motivation.

Why do you recommend these theories to your manager in order to address problems and please explain the distinctions between the two theories?

What implications can you provide for organisational practice and what are the limitations of each theory in practice?

2. In today’s competitive marketplace, CIPD (2011) places the concept of ‘Talent Management’ high on the HR agenda in order to facilitate on-going business success. With reference to appropriate scholarly research, critically explain the emergence of the notion of ‘Talent Management’ in contemporary organisations.

What are some key strategies that can be used by organisations in order to attract, select, develop, and retain talent?

3. Many managers view performance appraisal as an inconvenience that they really should not have to bother with it. To what extent do you agree (or disagree) with this viewpoint?

4. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of three different approaches to leadership. Reflect on the importance of applying appropriate styles of leadership for the success of organisations in today’s global business environment.

Motivation Theories: Content and Process Theories

1. Motivation theories are classified into content and process theories. Content theories focus on individual goals and needs as factors that motivate people. Example of the content theory is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory (Managementstudyguide.com, 2018). On the other hand, process theories deal with how motivation occurs. One example of this theory is Vroom’s Expectancy theory. Maslow Hierarchy of Needs is based on five needs within every individual. The needs are presented in a pyramid tier with the based need having to be satisfied first before an individual goes to the higher level in the tier.

                                                    (Management study guide.com, 2018)

Physiological needs are the basic human wants such as food, air water, and other basic amenities. Safety needs include the need for security and protection. It involves both physical, emotional and environmental protection (Lester, 2013, pp.16). Further, social needs encompass the need for friendship, care, love, and affection. Esteem need include confidence, self-respect, attention, status, and recognition. Lastly, self-actualization is the urge to achieve one's potential.it involves the desire to acquire additional knowledge, experience growth, and self-satisfaction. According to this theory, unsatisfied needs motivates individuals. As one satisfies the need of the lower level, he is motivated to address the next level need.

Vroom’s Expectancy theory places emphasis on the process of motivation. It aims at explaining how an individual makes a choice from the available actions. This theory is further explained under the variables of expectancy, instrumentality, and valence (Parijat and Bagga, 2014, pp.7). Expectancy is based on the belief that an added effort will result in an increased performance. Instrumentality, on the other hand, is on the belief that hard work is always rewarded. Lastly, Valence is the value an individual place on the reward of success. In this theory, if a person does not see the correlation between effort and performance, he will not be motivated.

I have recommended these theories because Maslow Hierarchy of needs will address employee’s internal motivators while the expectancy theory will provide the process through which the employees can get motivated. The difference between these two theories is that Maslow’s Need theory focuses on the individual needs while the Expectancy theory is more inclined on the results by equating effort and performance.

The implication of Maslow’s theory is that managers should offer better salaries, provide job security, encourage teamwork and offer jobs that utilize the competence and skills of employees. Expectancy theory implications are that managers should correlate between preferred outcomes and performance and also reward employees for their good performance (Chemolli and Gagné, 2014, pp.576). The limitation of Maslow’s theory is that not all employees have the same set of wants and needs. On the other hand, the limitation of Expectancy theory is in its application as not many organizations correlate directly performance with reward.

2. Talent management is the process of managing the competence, power, and ability of the employees in a given organization. It involves looking at the hidden qualities of every employee and developing them in order to acquire the best results (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe, 2014, pp.175). Contemporary organizations seek to hire the best talent in the job market. However, retaining those employees has become a bigger task in today’s organizations. The organizations also aim at transitioning the employees so that they may adapt to the culture and ways of the organization. This process is not only limited to hiring the best people in the job market but also developing, retaining and promoting them in line with the requirements of the organization. Today’s organizations are faced with a fast-paced business environment, coupled with an ever-changing rapid workforce. This, therefore, requires a critical planning in approaching talent management. The business and Human resource managers have, however, gain an understanding of the importance of talent in driving business performance (Cappelli and Keller, 2014, pp.330). This has resulted in talent management practice being cited among the major priorities of the business. However, the companies fall short in the execution of these practices. This has resulted in strategizing the functions of talent management. Some of these strategies are; having an understanding of the power of job descriptions. The organization recruiting team should outline their expectation of the candidates they are hiring. Another strategy is assessing the cultural fitness of the candidate. This involves understanding the candidate’s personal values and passion and ensuring they are in line with those of the organization. Additionally, the organization should provide opportunities for development and continuous training. The organization may end up losing critical employees if they feel they are being underused or are bored. Training will equip the employees with additional skills that will further their talents. Lastly, it is important for organizations to offer rewards and incentives to exemplary employees. This will boost the morale of the employees, making them feel motivated, recognized and appreciated. It will also drive employees to better their performance. For example, if the organization exceeds the profit targets, the management can offer some bonuses to the employees.

Implications for Organizational Practice and Limitations

3. Performance appraisal is the regular review of the performance of the employees and their contribution to the organization. It seeks to evaluate the growth, performance, achievements and employee skills or abilities. This review is also used by organizations to offer feedback to the work done and is also one of the means that justifies promotions and pay increments, as well as the decision for termination in cases where an employee has performed poorly (Bednall, Sanders, and Runhaar, 2014, pp.50). However, these reviews come with their issues and problems and many managers view the process as challenging. This is because of the following challenges in the process. One, it is hard to come up with effective criteria. This is because each criterion needs to be measurable and quantified. Another challenge is that many performance raters lack the required competence. For the appraisal process to be successful, the evaluators should have requisite knowledge that will enable them to come up with effective evaluation criteria (Bednall, Sanders, and Runhaar, 2014, pp.50). Further, the process is characterized by errors in evaluation and rating. These errors are based on stereotyping and personal biases. Another major factor is the halo effect whereby, the evaluator may subject the process based on one trait. Another major challenge in the process is the resistance from employees and their trade unions. This is because most employees fear to receive negative ratings that may result in their dismissal.

The performance management system is the process of coming up with a conducive environment that allows employees to perform to the best of their abilities. The following key elements can improve the performance of the management system (Yadav, and Dabhade, 2013, pp.65). The system should be fair and accurate by obtaining various perspectives and not relying only on the manager’s input. The system should also be efficient in that in generally improves how the employee perform. Additionally, the system should use various data sources to develop a multi-rater feedback. This will help in countering biases and stereotyping. The performance process should also apply development and training on employee skills (Mir and Pinnington, 2014, pp.210). This includes coaching and rehearsing of personal skills to develop the competence of the employees. The performance management system should be able to remodel the past system by retaining the working elements and eradicating the problems of the current system. The system should be able to achieve the objectives of modernized organization management for effective performance management goals.

4. Leadership approach is the characteristic and behavior portrayed by a leader when managing, guiding and directing people. There are different approaches used by organization managers in their governing. The most common styles are those proposed by psychologist Kurt Lewin. They include Authoritarian (autocratic), participative (democratic) and delegated (laissez-Faire) (Dinh, et al., 2014, pp.50). Autocratic leadership is where the manager has absolute control of decision making with little input from the employees. Its strength is that leaders can make decisions quickly and it has a clear chain of command. The weakness of this style is that it discourages input from employees, it impairs creativity and expertise from the subordinates and it develops fear instead of respect. Participative leadership is where the managers involve the employees in the decision making process but retains the ultimate authority to make decisions. The strength of this approach is that it is applicable in almost every organization, it is the best approach for solving complex problems due to the input of many people and it encourages creativity among employees (Parris and Peachey, 2013, pp.380). The weakness of this style is that it consumes a lot of time due to its consensus approach. It may also lead to conflicts due to different opinion tabled by the decision makers. Lastly, the decision made may not be effective in a situation whereby there has been an input of less-skilled workers. Laissez-Faire leadership approach allows other to make the decision for the manager giving the workers independence to perform as they deem fit. The strength of this approach is that it facilitates personal development. It also boosts innovation and creativity by encouraging multiple perspectives. Additionally, it creates an inviting working environment by giving workers autonomy. The weakness of this style is that some workers may take advantage of the situation and slacken in the job. Additionally, this style creates a vacuum of responsibility when a wrong is committed.

Leadership is important in facilitating the success of an organization in the global business environment, as a good leader can create new opportunities and mobilize current resources to the advantage of the organization. Involving the employees in the decision-making process may improve their experience and foster creativity and innovation. There is a huge correlation between leadership approaches and exploitation of resources. This approaches should be flexible and dynamic to enable the managers to utilize opportunities for maximum resource leverage. Leadership styles have adapted to become among the indexes for consideration when gauging business competitiveness.

I support the use of leadership in furthering the success of an organization in the global economic environment. This is primarily because good leadership shapes the path an organization has to take. SAS Institute is the leading data analytics company in the world with operations in over 120 countries. The company CEO, Jim Goodnight employs a democratic leadership style (Sas.com, 2018). The employees are involved in the decision making and this has facilitated the company to among the best company to work for.

Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W.F. and Paauwe, J., 2014. Talent management: Current theories and future research directions. Journal of World Business, 49(2), pp.173-179.

Bednall, T.C., Sanders, K. and Runhaar, P., 2014. Stimulating informal learning activities through perceptions of performance appraisal quality and human resource management system strength: A two-wave study. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13(1), pp.45-61.

Cappelli, P. and Keller, J.R., 2014. Talent management: Conceptual approaches and practical challenges. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav., 1(1), pp.305-331.

Chemolli, E. and Gagné, M., 2014. Evidence against the continuum structure underlying motivation measures derived from self-determination theory. Psychological Assessment, 26(2), p.575-602.

Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. and Hu, J., 2014. Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pp.36-62.

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Parijat, P. and Bagga, S., 2014. Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation–An evaluation. International Research Journal of Business and Management, 7(9), pp.1-8.

Parris, D.L. and Peachey, J.W., 2013. A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. Journal of business ethics, 113(3), pp.377-393.

Sas.com. (2018). Leadership. [online] Available at: https://www.sas.com/en_us/company-information/leadership.html [Accessed 3 Dec. 2018].

Yadav, R.K. and Dabhade, N., 2013. Performance management system in Maharatna Companies (a leading public sector undertaking) of India–a case study of BHEL, Bhopal (MP). International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 4(49), pp.49-69.