BUS208: Principles of Management

5a. List the factors that motivate people

Need-based theories describe motivated behavior as individual efforts to meet needs. According to this perspective, the manager's job is to identify what people need and then make sure that the work environment becomes a means of satisfying these needs.

Maslow's Hierarchy categorizes human needs into physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs.

1. Physiological Needs. Physiological needs refer to the need for air, food, and water. Imagine being very hungry. At that point, all your behavior may be directed at finding food. Once you eat, though, the search for food ceases, and the promise of food no longer serves as a motivator.
2. Safety. Are they safe from danger, pain, or an uncertain future? One level up, social needs refer to the need to bond with other human beings, be loved, and form lasting attachments. In fact, having no attachments can negatively affect health and well-being.
3. Social Esteem - The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. The satisfaction of social needs makes esteem needs more salient. Esteem needs refer to the desire to be respected, feel important, and be appreciated.
4. Self-Actualization refers to "becoming all you are capable of becoming". This need manifests itself by acquiring new skills, taking on new challenges, and satisfying your life goals.

ERG Theory is a modification of Maslow's hierarchy, where the five needs are collapsed into three categories: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth.

Two-Factor Theory differentiates between factors that make people dissatisfied with the job (hygiene factors) and factors that truly motivate employees. Hygiene factors included company policies, supervision, working conditions, salary, safety, and security on the job. Motivators are intrinsic to the job, such as achievement, recognition, interesting work, increased responsibilities, advancement, and growth opportunities.

Acquired-Needs Theory argues that individuals possess stable and dominant motives to achieve, acquire power, or affiliate with others. Need for Achievement has a strong need to be successful. A worker who derives great satisfaction from meeting deadlines, coming up with brilliant ideas, and planning their next career move may be high in need of achievement. High Need for Affiliation wants to be liked and accepted by others. When given a choice, they prefer to interact with others and be with friends.

 

5b. Explain the value of empowering employees

By properly tying rewards to positive behaviors, eliminating rewards following negative behaviors, and punishing negative behaviors, leaders can increase the frequency of desired behaviors. There are five components in job design that increase the motivating potential of a job: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback.

Goal-setting theory is one of the most influential theories of motivation. To motivate employees, you should set SMART goals:

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Achievable
4. Realistic
5. Timely

Goals give us direction and should be set carefully. Giving employees goals that are not aligned with company goals will be a problem because goals will direct employees' energy to a certain end. Goals energize people and tell them not to stop until they reach that point. Goals provide a challenge. When people have goals, and when they reach them, they feel a sense of accomplishment. SMART goals urge people to think outside the box and rethink how they are working. If a goal is substantially difficult, merely working harder will not get you the results. Instead, you will need to rethink how you usually work and devise a creative way of working.

Giving effective feedback is a key part of a manager's job. To do so, plan the delivery of feedback before, during, and after the meeting. There are several ways to learn about your own performance. Take the time to seek feedback and act on it. With this information, you can do key things to maximize your success and that of those you manage. Research shows that receiving feedback is key to performing well. If you are not receiving enough feedback on the job, it is better to seek it instead of guessing how well you are doing.

1. Consider seeking regular feedback from your boss. This also has the added benefit of signaling to the manager that you care about your performance and want to be successful.
2. Be genuine in your desire to learn. When seeking feedback, your aim should be improving yourself instead of creating the impression that you are a motivated employee. If your manager thinks you are managing impressions rather than genuinely trying to improve your performance, feedback-seeking may hurt you.
3. Develop a good relationship with your manager as well as the employees you manage. This would have the benefit of giving you more feedback in the first place. It also has the upside of making it easier to ask direct questions about your own performance.
4. Consider finding trustworthy peers who can share information with you regarding your performance. Your manager is not the only helpful source of feedback.
5. Be gracious when you receive unfavorable feedback. If you go on the defensive, there may not be a next time. Remember, even if it may not feel like it sometimes, feedback is a gift. You can improve your performance by using feedback constructively. Consider that the negative feedback giver probably risked your goodwill by being honest. Unless there are factual mistakes in the feedback, do not try to convince the person that the feedback is inaccurate.

 

5c. Analyze methods of recognizing and managing conflict

Outcomes of well-managed conflict include increased participation and creativity, while the negatives of poorly managed conflict include increased stress and anxiety. Jobs that deal with people are at higher risk for conflict. Conflict has many causes, including organizational structures, limitations on resources, task interdependence, goal incompatibility, personality differences, and communication challenges.

Conflict can have both positive and negative outcomes. On the positive side, conflict can result in greater creativity or better decisions.

1. Positive Outcomes include the following:
1. Consideration of a broader range of ideas, resulting in a better, stronger idea
2. Surfacing of assumptions that may be inaccurate
3. Increased participation and creativity
4. Clarification of individual views that build learning
2. Negative Outcomes include the following:
   1. Increased stress and anxiety among individuals, which decreases productivity and satisfaction
   2. Feelings of being defeated and demeaned, which lowers individuals' morale and may increase turnover
   3. A climate of mistrust, which hinders the teamwork and cooperation necessary to get work done

Conflict management techniques include changing organizational structures to avoid built-in conflict, changing team members, creating a common "enemy", using majority rules, and problem-solving. Conflict management styles include:

1. Accommodating others - is cooperative and unassertive. In this style, the person gives in to what the other side wants, even if it means giving up one's personal goals. People who use this style may fear speaking up for themselves, or they may place a higher value on the relationship, believing that disagreeing with an idea might hurt the other person.
2. Avoiding the conflict - is uncooperative and unassertive. People exhibiting this style seek to avoid conflict altogether by denying that it is there. They are prone to postponing any decisions in which a conflict may arise.
3. Collaborating - is high on both assertiveness and cooperation. This is a strategy to use for achieving the best outcome from conflict. Both sides argue for their position, supporting it with facts and rationale while listening attentively to the other side.
4. Competing - want to reach their goal or get their solution adopted regardless of what others say or how they feel. They are more interested in getting the outcome they want instead of keeping the other party happy, and they push for the deal they are interested in making.
5. Compromising - is a middle-ground style in which individuals desire to express their own concerns and get their way but still respect the other person's goals.

 

How Can You Stimulate Productive Conflict?

1. Encourage people to raise issues and disagree with you or the status quo without fear of reprisal. When brought out into the open, an issue festering beneath the surface may turn out to be a minor issue that can be easily addressed and resolved.
2. Assign a devil's advocate to stimulate alternative viewpoints. If a business unit is getting stagnant, bring in new people to "shake things up".
3. Create a competition among teams, offering a bonus to the team that comes up with the best solution to a problem. For example, have two product development teams compete on designing a new product, or reward the team with the fewest customer complaints or the highest customer satisfaction rating.
4. Build some ambiguity into the process. When individuals are free to come up with their own ideas about completing a task, the outcome may be surprising, and it allows for more healthy disagreements along the way.

 

Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Conflict (According to Dr. Fiore)

Managers can reduce conflict in the workplace by following these four suggestions.

1. Communicate effectively. Dr. Fiore states that managers should review and analyze how they communicate with others to ensure communication is effective. When fellow managers and employees see how well you can communicate, they are inspired to conduct themselves similarly. Your actions teach others effective ways to communicate without promoting conflict.
2. Establish clear expectations. Without clear expectations and boundaries, Dr. Fiore claims that conflict and power struggles will frequently occur. People thrive in a well-established environment where boundaries are clearly stated, and goals are defined. These parameters allow a person to excel within the acceptable limits and reduce ambiguity and confusion, which spawns conflict. To minimize conflict, a manager should ensure expectations are clearly stated and communicated to fellow workers.
3. Use emotional intelligence. Dr. Fiore defines emotional intelligence as the process of combining a person's intellectual intelligence with people skills. A manager who can combine these two skills by using emotional intelligence becomes better equipped to interact with and motivate employees with different personality styles. They come across to others as sensitive, caring, and compassionate managers; this perception reduces hostility and conflict with employees.
4. Set consequences in advance. Dr. Fiore suggests that managers set and enforce consequences to reduce workplace conflict. Employees have to be held accountable for their actions. They must know what behaviors are acceptable and must be reprimanded for ones that violate set boundaries. Also, consequences should be established and communicated well before someone disobeys the standards.

 

Steps to Resolve Conflict

Conflict resolution is necessary for all types of organizations. Frequently, facilitators are assigned the role of helping employees to resolve conflict. Facilitators can be managers, leaders, or designated employees granted the facilitator role in the organization. The more educated facilitators are on resolving conflict effectively and healthily, the better the outcome will be. Four steps designed to equip facilitators with step-by-step instructions on how to effectively resolve conflict in the workplace are:

1. Meet with the conflicting parties together. This step is one of the most overlooked yet necessary steps when employees try to resolve conflict. All parties involved in the conflict should be brought together to discuss the issue at hand. Each party should present its view of the problem without interruptions from the other parties. Each party needs to hear everyone's viewpoint and understand why the parties are conflicting with each other. Ensure that each party states its case clearly and calmly without personally attacking the other parties.
2. Ask each party for specific suggestions on how to resolve the conflict. Each party should state two to three specific suggestions on how it thinks the conflict could be resolved. As the facilitator, help the parties come up with specific suggestions. Try to encourage each party to identify what action is the root cause of the problem. Then, prompt them to come up with specific ways that would resolve the issue. Asking additional questions of the employees may help trigger the parties to uncover the real problem, not just the symptom of the problem, and then outline a specific resolution.
3. Discuss the issue and agree to make changes. Next, the parties should discuss the suggestions from the previous step and agree to make the necessary changes. This step is where each party engages in a negotiation to come up with a resolution plan. Depending on the complexity of the conflict, it may take some time before all parties agree with what suggestions should be implemented to resolve the conflict. As the facilitator, ensure that each party is reasonable and professional. Do not allow the parties to disrespect one another or for the discussion to turn into another argument. Act quickly to dissolve any discussions that start to escalate into another argument. Encourage each party to give and take to make sure each party feels satisfied with the resolution plan. Also, make sure you remain impartial to either party.
4. Follow-up to ensure that the conflict is resolved. The last step is to set a date for the resolution to be implemented and follow-up on its progress. While all parties might feel better after creating a resolution plan in step three, the conflict is not resolved until the resolution plan has been implemented.

 

Encouraging Meaningful Conflict

There are seven tips for organizations to encourage employees to participate in conflict in constructive and productive ways.

1. Management sets the tone. Managers must create an environment that will allow meaningful discussion, sharing ideas, and mutual respect. Managers' behaviors and actions provide employees with a model to follow.
2. Hire the right people. Management should seek out those potential employees who demonstrate the ability to address conflict in positive and productive ways.
3. Train your employees. Many employees may not know how to engage in positive conflict. Providing education and training will enable them to develop effective skills.
4. Reward meaningful conflict. Recognize employees who participate in positive conflict, and reward those whose actions result in successful outcomes.
5. Encourage your employees to support their position. People should be expected to be able to support their positions with facts and figures. This will take the conflict from emotional to rational.
6. Encourage your employees to be respectful. Participants in meaningful conflict situations must be respectful of others and be forbidden from making personal attacks on others.
7. Encourage honesty. All participants must feel free to express their opinions with all viewpoints considered to be equal.