The Effects of Leadership Styles on Team Motivation

Motivation is an essential part of success and business prosperity in the existing dynamic and competitive market. It is comprised of an individual's internal characteristics and the external factors that include job factors, individual differences and organizational practices.

Motivation is the need for and expectation of work and the different factors in the workplace that facilitate team motivation. It is important for managers to emerge as leaders so that they understand team members' needs and expectations, which drive the organization's culture. Of all the functions that a leader performs, motivating employees is the most important and complex task. A major reason for this is that team motivation attributes change constantly. The major factors that motivate employees are fulfillment of needs, workplace justice, labor expended, employee development programs and policies of reward and appreciation.

Motivation in the healthcare industry can be defined as an individual's degree of willingness to exert and maintain the production of effort towards organizational goals. Motivation is closely associated with aspects such as job satisfaction, which drives people to perform. Motivating and satisfying healthcare professionals helps to improve the overall functioning and services of the healthcare system. Healthcare professionals who are poorly motivated have a negative effect on the entire system and individual facilities.

Motivating teams is more challenging than motivating an individual. Very often, individuals in the team have different beliefs, values and different goals and expectations. A team can be defined as a collection of individuals who have different skill sets; work together to achieve goals and help team members to collaboratively apply different skills. It is difficult for a leader to motivate every member of a team based on his or her unique motivating factor. A single motivation strategy has to be selected for the team so that it can be motivated effectively. Moreover, motivating a team is often challenging as both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation strategies have to be determined according to the values, beliefs and thinking of the entire team. There can be both positive and negative personalities in a team. Positive personalities help individuals to contribute their unique capabilities and potential effectively.

People in the healthcare system may have the expertise, but if they are not motivated, they will not be able to achieve their potential. With the relevance and importance of the team increasing in organizations, the focus is shifting from individual motivation to team motivation. If an individual is motivated in a healthcare organization, this builds trust and motivates others, thereby improving team motivation levels. Burton posits that non-financial rewards are more powerful motivators than financial incentives. These rewards or recognition can be earned individually or in teams and tend to motivate both teams and individuals. Burton states that group rewards are more positive as they improve team bonding, along with increasing productivity. If employees are allowed to work in teams, they get easily motivated. Moreover, the team is responsible for making important decisions collectively and this can further improve team motivation. In healthcare organizations, motivating staff and professionals is also necessary, because nursing staff and other professionals have to deal with high levels of stress.

Humphrey et al. define a team as a group of people who work actively together to achieve a common purpose and are willing to work to ensure that their objectives are achieved. In a healthcare organization, teams have prime relevance, as it is a multidisciplinary profession, including nurses, doctors and professionals of different specialties. These people must work effectively in a team, communicating and sharing resources. Each member of a healthcare team has specialized knowledge to perform different tasks. These multi-professional teams solve health problems. Such teams form an important feature of organizations in all industries, not only healthcare. The perspective on which they are based is that all the team members are highly qualified. The potential value of such teams is clear, but healthcare organizations are finding it difficult to motivate them, which is a challenging task. Further, motivation alone is generally not enough, other features such as communication are essential. Open interactions help team members to communicate effectively about their professions. Moreover, each member should have the opportunity to communicate, as this further motivates these professionals. Leadership can never be separated from team motivation and effective leadership is associated with the durable motivation of team members.