Motivation

Motivation

Motivation is the word derived from the word “motive’ which means needs, desires, wants or drives within the individuals. It is the process of stimulating people to actions to accomplish the goals. In the work goal context the psychological factors stimulating the people’s behavior can be:

                Desire for money

                Success

                Recognition

                Job-satisfaction

                Teamwork etc

One of the most important function of management to create willingness amongst the employees to perform in the vest of their abilities. Therefore the role of a leader is to arouse interest in performance of employees in their jobs. The process of motivation consists of three stages:

                A felt need or drive

                A stimulus in which needs have to be aroused

When needs are satisfied, the satisfaction or accomplishment of goals.

Therefore, we can say that motivation is a psychological phenomenon which means needs and wants of the individuals have to be tackled by framing an incentive plan.

Importance of Motivation

Motivation is a very important for an organization because of the following benefits it provides:

·         Puts human resources into action

Every concern requires physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. It is through motivation that the human resources can be utilized by making full use of it. This can be done by building willingness in employees to wor3.k. This will help the enterprise in securing best possible utilization of resources.

·         Improves level of efficiency of employees

The level of a subordinate or an employee does not only depend upon his qualification and abilities. For getting best of his work performance, the gap between ability and willingness has to be filled which helps in improving the level of performance of subordinates. This will result into:

                Increase in productivity

Reducing cost of operations, and

                 Improving overall efficiency

·         Leads to achievement of organizational goals

The goals of an enterprise can be achieved only when the following factors take place.

                There is best possible utilization of resources

                There is a co-operative work environment

The employees are goal-directed and they act in a purposive manner.

Goals can be achieved if co-ordination and co-operative takes place simultaneously which can be effectively done through motivation.

·         Builds friendly relationship

Motivation is an important factor which brings employees satisfaction. This can be done by keeping into mind and framing an incentive plan for the benefit of the employees. This could initiate the following things:

                Monetary and non-monetary incentives

Promotion opportunities for employees

Disincentives for inefficient employees

In order to build a cordial, friendly atmosphere in a concern, the above steps should be taken by a manager. This would help in:

                Effective co-operation which brings stability,

                Industrial dispute and unrest in employees will reduce

                The employees will be adaptable to the changes and there will be no resistance to the change

This will help in providing a smooth and sound concern in which individual interests will coincide with the organizational interests

This will result in profit maximization through increased productivity

·         Lead to stability of work force

Stability of work force is very important form the point of view of reputation and goodwill of a concern. The employees can remain loyal to the enterprise only when they have a feeling of participation in the management. The skills and efficiency of employees will always be of advantage to employees as well as employees. This will lead to a good public image in the market, which will attract competent and qualified people into a concern.

From the above discussion, we can say that motivation is an internal feeling which can be understood only by manger since he is in close contact with the employees. Needs, wants and desires are inter-related and they are the driving forces to act. These needs can be understood by the manger and he can frame to motivation plans accordingly. We can say that motivation therefore is a continuous process since motivation process is based on needs which are unlimited. The process has to be continued throughout.

We can summarize by saying that motivation is important both to an individual and a business. Motivation is important to an individual as:

                Motivation will help his achieve his personal goals

                If an individual is motivated, he will have job satisfaction

                Motivation will help in self-development of individual

An individual would always gain by working with a dynamic team

Similarly, motivation is important to a business as

                The more motivated the employees are, the more empowered the team is.

The more is the team work and individual employee contribution, more profitable and successful is the business

                During period of changes, there will be more adaptability and creativity

                Motivation will lead to an optimistic and challenging attitude at work place

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Model

The needs have been classified into the following in order:

1.       Physiological needs: these are the basic needs of an individual which includes food, clothing, shelter, air, water, etc. These needs relate to the survival and maintenance of human life.

2.       Safety needs: These needs are also important for human beings. Everybody wants job security, protection against danger, safety of property, etc.

3.       Social needs: These needs emerge from society. A ma is a social animal. These needs become important. For example: love, affection, belongingness, friendship, conversation, etc.

4.       Esteem needs: These needs relate to desire for self-respect, recognition and respect form others

5.       Self-actualization needs: These are the needs of the highest order and these needs are found in those people whose previous four needs are satisfied. This will include need for social service, meditation.

Leadership

Leadership

Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given situation. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence and zeal.

Leadership is the potential to influence behavior of other. It si also defined as the capacity to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders are required to develop future visions, and to motivate the organizational members to ant to achieve the visions.

Characteristics of leadership

1.       It is an inter-personal process in which a manager is into influencing and guiding workers towards attainment of goals.

2.       It denotes a few qualities to be present in a person who includes intelligence, maturity, and personality.

3.       It is a group process. It involves two or more people interacting with each other.

4.       A leader is involved in shaping and moulding the behavior of the group towards accomplishment of organizational goals.

5.       Leadership is situation bound. There is not best style of leadership. It all depends upon tackling with the situations.

Importance of leadership

1.       Initiates action: leader is a person who starts the work by communicating the policies and plans to the subordinate’s form where the work actually starts.

2.       Motivation: a leader proves to be playing an incentive role in the concern’s working. He motivates the employees with economic and non-economic rewards and thereby gets the work from the subordinates.

3.       Providing guidance: a leader has to not only supervise but also play a guiding role for the subordinates. Guidance here means instructing the subordinates the way they have to perform their work effectively and efficiently.

4.       Building morale: morale denotes willing co-operation of the employees towards their work and getting them into confidence and winning their trust. A leader can be a morale booster by achieving full co-operation so that they perform with best of their abilities as they work to achieve goals.

5.       Builds work environment: management is getting things done from people. An efficient work environment helps in sound and stable growth. Therefore, human relations should be kept into mind by a leader. He should have personal contacts with employees and should listen to their problems and solve them. He should treat employees on humanitarian terms.

6.       Co-ordination: co-ordination can be achieved through reconciling personal interests with organizational goals. This synchronization can be achieved through proper and effective co-ordinate which should be primary motive of a leader.

Decision making

Decision Making

Decision-making is an integral part of modern management. Essentially, rational or sound decision making is taken as primary function of management. Every manage takes hundreds and hundreds of decisions subconsciously or consciously making it as the key component in the role of a manager.

Decisions play important roles as they determine both organizational and managerial activities. A decision can be defined as a course of action purposely chosen from a set of alternative to achieve organizational or managerial objectives or goals. Decision making process is continuous and indispensable component of managing ay organization or business activities. Decisions are made to sustain the activities of all business and organizational functioning.

Decisions are made at every level of management to ensure organizational or business goals are achieve. Further the decisions make up one of core functional values that every organization adopts and implements to ensure optimum growth and drivability in terms of services and or products offered.

A lot of time is consumed while decisions are taken. In a management setting, decision cannot be taken abruptly. It should follow the steps such as

1.       Defining the problem

2.       Gathering information and collecting data Developing and weighing the options

3.       Choosing best possible option

4.       Plan and execute

5.       Take follow

Since decision making process follows the above sequential steps, a lot of time is spent in this process. This is the case with every decision taken to solve management and administrative problems in a business setting. Though the whole process is time consuming, the result of such process in a professional organization is magnanimous.

Process of decision making decision making process is like a school exam. Those who take good decision will pass the exam and the rest who does not take right decisions will have to bear the consequences. Being able to take good decision is important for everyone, whether he/she is a student, teacher, manager, principal, president, leader of any institution, etc. A student has to take decision about his career, a president has to take decisions regarding his country’s benefit, and a manager has to take decisions regarding his company and likewise the leader of any institution. So every single person has to pass this step in order to progress in their fields.

The meaning of decision in Latin is to ‘cut off’. This means that from all the available alternatives you choose one thing and then cut off from all the other alternatives. Due to this, the decision making process sometimes becomes very difficult. Choosing the right option from all the alternatives is very hard to do.

Decision making process requires thinking process, time, efforts, resources and also a little bit of knowledge and past experiences. Thinking process plays an important role in decision making process because it allows you to judge each and every thing. Timing is also important.

Taking right decisions on right time can save you from any trouble. Taking too little time to take decisions or taking too much time to execute your decision can cause many problems for you. Decision making processes also requires knowledge, experiences, and research. If you have knowledge, you can find out different alternatives for the problem faced. Making decisions without having proper knowledge about the problem can cause difficulties.

In our view decision making power is the key to progress in life. You might have seen many people who do not take proper decisions and then they have to suffer. On the other hand people who have this decision making power continues to progress in their life. Not all of us have this decision making power. We try to make right decisions but sometimes we make mistakes because we don’t know the steps that we should follow during the decision making process. So in order to take right decisions, it is important that we should know all the steps of decisions making process and follow them.

The decision making process involves the following steps:

1.       Curious observation

2.       Existence of problem

3.       Goals and planning

4.       Search, Explore & gather the Evidence

5.       Generate creative and logical alternative solutions

6.       Evaluate the evidence

7.       Make the educated guess (hypothesis)

8.       Challenge the hypothesis

9.       Reach a conclusion

10.   Suspend judgment

11.   Take action

Directing and Communication

Communication

The process of passing any information form one person to the other person with the aid of some medium is termed as communication.

The first party who sends the information is called the sender and the second party who receives the information, decodes the information, and accordingly responds is called the receiver of the recipient. Thus in simpler terms communication is simply a process where the sender sends the information to the receiver for him to respond.

Communication process

Communication process is a simple process where a message is being transferred from a sender to the receiver. The receiver after receiving the message understands the message in the desired form and then acts accordingly.

The process of sending the message

The first party or the sender first thinks of information, whatever he intends to communicate or transfer to the other. Then he puts the information or the message in words or prepare a content. The process of putting the thoughts in words is called encoding. Finally the content after being ready is transmitted to the receiver.

The process of receiving the message

The message reaches the sender. Who then decodes the message or in simpler terms breaks the information, understands it and responds to the receiver. The sender also gives feedback to the receiver after he has understood the complete information.

Communication is simpler terms is a process of passing the information form the first party (sender) to the second party (receiver). Communication plays a vital role not only is organizations or one’s professional career but also is essential in day to day life.

Directing

It is that part of managerial function which actuates the organizational methods to work efficiently for achievement of organizational purposes. It is considered life-spark of the enterprise which sets it in motion the action of people because planning, organizing and staffing are the mere preparations for doing the work. Direction is that inert-personnel aspect of management which deals directly with influencing, guiding, supervising, motivating sub-ordinate for the achievement of organizational goals. Direction has following elements:

                Supervision

                Motivation

                Leadership

Communication

Supervision: implies overseeing the work of subordinates by their superiors. It is the act of watching and directing work and worker.

Motivation: means inspiring, stimulating or encouraging the sub-ordinates with zeal to work. Positive, negative, monetary, non-monetary incentives may be used for this purpose.

Leadership: may be defined as a process by which manager guides and influences the work of subordinates in desired direction.

Communications: is the process of passing information, experience, opinion etc. from one person to another. It is bridge of understanding.

Organizing in management

Organizing:

Importance of organizing

Specialization: organizational structure is a network of relationships in which the work is divided into units and departments. This division of work is helping in bringing in specialization in various activities of concern.

Well defined jobs: organizational structure helps in putting right men on right job which can be done by selecting people for various departments according to their qualifications, skills, and experience. This is helping in defining the jobs properly which clarifies the role of every person

Clarifies Authority: Organizational structure helps in clarifying the role positions to every manager This can be done by clarifying the powers to every manager and the way he has to exercise those powers should be clarified. So those misuses of powers do not take place. Well defined jobs and responsibilities attached helps in bringing efficiency into managers working. This helps in increasing productivity.

Co-ordination: organization is a means of creating co-ordination among different departments of the enterprise. It creates clear cut relationships among positions and ensure mutual co-operation among individuals. Harmony of work is brought by higher level managers exercising their authority over interconnected activities of lower level manager.

Authority responsibility relationships can be fruitful only when there is a formal relationship between the two. For smooth running of an organization, the co-ordination between authorities, responsibility is very important. There should be co-ordination between different relationships. Clarity should be made for having an ultimate responsibility attached to every authority.

Effective administration:

The organization structure is helpful in defining the jobs positions. The roles to be performed by different manager are clarified. Specialization is achieved through division of work. This all leads to efficient and effective administration.

Growth and diversification:

A company’s growth is totally dependent on how efficiently and smoothly a concern works. Efficiency can be brought about by clarifying the role positions to the managers, co-ordination between authority and responsibility and concentrating on specialization.

Sense of security:

Organizational structure clarifies the job positions. The roles assigned to every manager are clear. Co-ordination is possible. Therefore, clarity of powers helps automatically in increasing mental satisfaction and thereby a sense of security in a concern. This is very important for job-satisfaction.

Scope for new changes:

Where the roles and activities to be performed are clear and every person gets independence in his working, this provides enough space to a manager to develop his talents and flourish his knowledge. A manager gets ready for taking independent decisions which can be a road or path to adoption of new techniques of production. This scope is for bringing into the running of an enterprise is possible only through a set of organizational structure.

Delegation of Authority

A manager alone cannot perform all the tasks assigned to him. In order to meet the targets, the manager should delegate authority. Delegation of Authority means division of authority and powers downwards to the subordinate. Delegation is about entrusting someone else to do parts of your job. Delegation of authority can be defined as subdivision and sub-allocation of powers to the subordinates in order to achieve effective results.

Elements to delegation:

Authority: in context of a business organization, authority can be defined as the power and right of a person to use and allocate the resources efficiently, to take decisions, and to give orders so as to achieve the organizational objectives. Authority must be well-defined. All people who have the authority should know what is the scope of their authority is and they shouldn’t missutilize it. Authority is the right to give commands, orders and get the things done. The top level management has greatest authority. Authority always flows from top to bottom. It explains how a superior gets work done form his subordinate y clearly explaining what is expected of him and how he should go about it.  Authority should be accompanied with an equal amount of responsibility. Delegating the authority to someone else doesn’t imply escaping from accountability. Accountability still rest with the person having the utmost authority.

Responsibility: is the duty of the person to complete the task assigned to him. A person who is given the responsibility should ensure that he accomplishes the tasks assigned to him. If the tasks for which he was held responsible are not completed, then he should not give explanations or excuses. Responsibility without adequate authority leads to discontent and dissatisfaction among the person. Responsibility flows from bottom to top. The middle level and lower level management holds more responsibility. The person held responsible for a job is answerable for it. If he performs the tasks assigned as expected, he is bound for praises. But if he doesn’t accomplish his tasks assigned as expected, then also he is answerable for that.

Accountability: means giving explanations for any variance in the actual performance from the expectations set. Accountability cannot be delegated. Accountability, means being answerable for the end result. Accountability can’t be escaped. It arises form responsibility.

For achieving, a manager has to work in a system and has to perform following steps:-

Assignment of tasks and duties

Granting of authority

Creating responsibility and accountability

Delegation of authority is the base of superior-subordinate relationship, it involves following steps:

Assignment of Duties: The delegator first tries to define the task and duties to the subordinate. He also has to define the result expected from the subordinates. Clarity of duty as well as result expected has to be the first step in delegation.

Granting of authority: - Subdivision of authority takes place when a superior divides and shares his authority with the subordinates It is for this reason; every subordinate should be given enough independence to carry the task given to him by his superiors. The managers at all levels delegate authority and power which is attached to their job positions. The subdivision of powers is very important to get effective results.

Creating Responsibility and Accountability: the delegation process does not end once powers are granted to the subordinates. They at the same time to be obligatory towards the duties assigned to them. Responsibility is said to be the factor or obligation of an individual to carry out his duties in best of his ability as per the directions of superior. Responsibility is very important. Therefore, it is that which gives effectiveness to authority. At the same time, responsibility is absolute and cannot be shifted. Accountability, on the others hand, is the obligation of the individual to carry out his duties as per the standards of performance. Therefore, it is said that authority is delegated, responsibility is created, and accountability is imposed. Accountability arises out of responsibility and responsibility arises out of authority. Hence, it becomes important that with every authority position an equal and opposite responsibility should be attached.

Therefore every manger, i.e., the delegator has to follow a system to finish up the delegation process. Equally important is the delegate’s role which means his responsibility and accountability is attached with the authority over to here.

Features of staffing on management

Staffing

The managerial function of staffing involves manning the organization structure through proper and effective selection, judgment, and development of the personnel’s to fill the roles assigned to the employers/workers.

Nature of staffing function:

1.       Staffing is an important managerial function: staffing function is the most important managerial act along with planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. The operations of these four functions depend upon the manpower which is available through staffing function.

2.       Staffing is a pervasive activity: as staffing function is carried out by all managers and in all types of concerns where business activities are carried out

3.       Staffing is a continuous activity: this is because staffing function continues throughout the life of an organization due to the transfers and promotions that take place.

4.       The basis of staffing function is efficient management of personnel’s: human resources can be efficiently managed by a system or proper procedure, that is, employment, selection, placement, training, and development, providing remuneration, etc.

5.       Staffing helps in placing right men at the right job: it can be done effectively through proper recruitment procedures and then finally selecting the most suitable candidate as per the job requirements

6.       Staffing is performed by all managers: depending upon the nature of business, size of company, qualifications, and sills of managers, etc. In small companies, the top management generally performs this function. In medium and small scale enterprise, it is performed especially by the personnel department of that concern

Manpower planning which is also called as Human Resource Planning consists of putting right number of people, right kind of people at the right place, right time, doing the right things for which they are suited for the achievement of goals of the organization. Human Resource planning has got an important place in the area of industrialization. Human resource planning has to be a systems approach and is carried out in a set procedure. The procedure is as follows:

a.       Analyzing the current manpower inventory

b.      Making future manpower forecasts

c.       Developing employment programs

d.      Design training programs

Steps in Manpower Planning:

1.       Analyzing the current manpower inventory: Before a manager makes forecast of future manpower, the current manpower status has to be analyzed. For this the following things have to be noted:

Type of organization

Number of departments

Number and quantity of such departments

Employees in these work units

Once these factors are registered by a manager, he goes for the future forecasting.

2.       Making future manpower forecasts: Once the factors affecting the future manpower forecasts are known, planning can be done for the future manpower requirements in several units.

The manpower forecasting techniques commonly employed by the organizations are as follows:

Expert forecasts: This includes informal decisions, formal expert surveys and Delphi technique.

Trend Analysis: Manpower needs can be projected through extrapolation (projecting past trends), indexation (using base year as basis), and statistical analysis (central tendency measure).

Work load analysis: It is dependent upon the nature of work load in a department, in a branch or in a division.

Work Force Analysis: Whenever production and time period has to be analyzed, due allowances have to be made for getting net manpower requirements.

Other methods: Several mathematical models, with the aid of computers are sued to forecast manpower needs, like budget and planning analysis, regression, new venture analysis.

3.       Developing employment programs: Once the current inventory is compared with future forecasts, the employment programmers can be framed and developed accordingly, which will include recruitment, selection procedures and placement plans.

4.       Design training programs: These will be based upon extent of diversification, expansion plans, development programs, etc. Training programs depend upon the extent of improvement in technology and advancement to take place. It is also done to improve upon the skill, capabilities, knowledge of the workers.

Importance of Manpower Planning:

Key to managerial functions: The four managerial functions, i.e., organizing, directing and controlling are based upon the manpower. Human resources help in the implementation of all these managerial activities. Therefore, staffing becomes a key to all managerial functions.

1.       Efficient utilization: Efficient management of personnel’s becomes an important function in the industrialization world of today. Setting of large scale enterprises requires management of large scale manpower. It can be effectively done through staffing function.

2.       Motivation: Staffing function not only include right men on right job, but is also comprises of motivational programs, i.e., incentive plans to be framed for further participation and employment of employees in a concern. Therefore, all types of incentive plans become an integral part of function.

3.       Better human relations: A concern can stabilize itself if human relations develop and are strong. Human relation becomes strong trough effective control, clear communication, effective supervision, and leadership in a concern. Staffing function also looks after training and development of the work force which leads to co-operation and better human relations.

4.       Higher productivity: Productivity level increases when resources are utilized in best possible manner, higher productivity is a result of minimum wastage of time, efforts, and energies. This is possible through the staffing and its related activities (Performance appraisal, training, and development, remuneration).

Need of manpower planning

Manpower planning is a two-phased process because manpower planning not only analyzes the current human resources but also makes manpower forecasts and thereby draws employment programs. Manpower planning is advantageous to firm in following manner.

1.       Shortages and surpluses can be identified  so that quick action can be taken wherever required

2.       All the recruitment and selection programs are based on manpower planning

3.       It also helps to reduce the labor costs as excess staff can be identified and thereby overstaffing can be avoided

4.       It also helps to identify the available talents in a concern and accordingly training programs can be chalked out to develop those talents.

5.       It helps in growth and diversification of business through manpower planning, human resources can be readily available and they can be utilized in best manner.

6.       It helps the organization to realize the importance of manpower management which ultimately helps in the stability of a concern.

The Employee selection process takes place in following order:

1.       Preliminary Interviews: It is used to eliminate those candidates who do not meet the minimum eligibility criteria laid down by the organization. The skills, academic and family background, competencies, and interests of the candidate are examined during preliminary interview. Preliminary interviews are less formalized and planned than the final interviews. The candidates are given a brief up about the company and the job profile, and it is also examined how much the candidate knows about the company. Preliminary interviews are also called screening interviews.

2.       Application blanks: the candidate who clears the preliminary interview is required to fill application blank. It contains data record of the candidates such as details about age, qualifications, reason for leaving previous job, experience, etc.

3.       Written Tests: Various writhe tests conducted during selection procedure are aptitude test, intelligence test, reasoning test, personality test, etc. These tests are sued to objectively assess the potential candidate. They should not be influenced.

4.       Employment interviews: it is a one to one interaction between the interviewer and the potential candidate. It is used to find whether the candidate is best suited for the required job or not.  But such interviews consume time and money both. Moreover the competencies of the candidate cannot be judged. Such interviews may be influenced at times. Such interviews should be conducted properly. No distractions should be there in room. There should be an honest communication between candidate and interviewer.

5.       Medical examination: medical tests are conducted to ensure physical fitness of the potential employee. It will decrease chances of employee absenteeism.

6.       Appointment letter: A reference check is made about the candidate selected and then finally he is appointed by giving a formal appointment letter.