Motivating Employees in the Workplace

8/12/2019 Motivating Employees in the Workplace

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Some researchers, however, do not believe that a positive mood makes people more creative.They argue that when people are in positive, moods, they may relax. If in a good mood,things must be going OK, and must not need to think of new ideas and not engage in thecritical thinking necessary for some forms of creativity. However, this view is controversial.Until there are more studies on the subject, we can safely conclude that for many tasks,

positive moods increase our creativity.

Motivation: Motivation theories propose that individuals are motivated to the extent thattheir behavior is expected to lead to desired outcomes. The employee essentially trades effortfor pay, security promotions, and so forth. But as the Affective Events theory demonstrated,

people arent cold, feeling machines. Their perceptions and calculations of work events arefilled with emotional content that significantly influences how much effort they exert.Moreover, when see people who are highly motivated in their jobs theyre emotionallycommitted. People who are engaged in their work become physically, cognitively, andemotionally immersed in the experience of activity in the pursuit of a goal.

Leadership: The ability to lead others is fundamental quality that organizations look for inemployees.

Corporate executives know that emotional content is critical if employees are to buy into theirvision of their companys future and accept change. When higher-ups offer new visionsespecially when the visions contain distant or vague goals, it is often difficult for employeesto accept those visions and the changes theyll bring. So when effectively leaders want toimplement significant changes they rely on the emotion framing and mobilization ofemotions.

By arousing emotions and liking them to an appealing vision leaders increase the likelihoodthat managers and employees alike will accept change.

Interpersonal Conflict: Few issues are more intertwined with emotions than the topic ofinterpersonal conflict. Whenever conflicts arise between coworkers, you can be fairly certainthat emotions are surfacing. A managers success is in trying to resolve conflicts.

Job attitudes: Ever hear the advice Never take your work home with you, meaning thatpeople should forget about their work once they go home? As it turns out, thats easier saidthan done. Several studies have shown that people who had a good day at work tend to be in a

better mood at home that evening. And people who had a bad day tend to be a bad mood once

theyre at home. Evidence also suggests that people who have a stressful day at work havetrouble relaxing once they get off work.

Even though people do emotionally take their work home, by the next day, the effect isusually gone. So, though it may be hard or even unnatural to never take your work home withyou, it doesnt appear that, for most people a negative mood resulting a bad day at workcarries over to the next day.

An understanding of emotions and moods can improve the ability of managers to explain andpredict the selectionprocess, decision making, creativity, motivation, leadership,interpersonal conflict, negotiation, customer service, job attitudes, and deviant workplace


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behaviors. Evidence suggests that emotional intelligence should be a factor in hiringdecisions, particularly in jobs that demand a high degree of social interaction. The Air Forcefound that turnover was reduced by ninety percent when recruiters were selected on the basisof emotional intelligence scores.

When attempting to understand decision making,it is important to incorporate emotions andmoods in the process. People in good moods or those experiencing positive emotions aremore likely to use heuristics,or rules of thumb, to help them make good decisions quickly.However, these shortcuts can result in incorrect stereotypes and decisions.

The effect of mood on creativityis unclear. While some studies have shown that people ingood moods produce more ideas and develop more creative solutions to problems, otherstudies have shown that negative moods tend to produce more critical thinking and result inmore creativity.

In studying the effects of mood on motivation,several relationships are apparent. First,

individuals in a good mood tend to have higher expectations about their ability to meet achallenge or solve a difficult problem, when compared to those with more negative moods.Second, positive feedback about performance tends to positively influence mood and positivemood may be associated with creativity and performance.

Effective leaders have discovered that emotions are critical to leadership. Particularly whenattempting to implement significant change, evoking and mobilizing emotions is critical. Byarousing emotions and linking them to an appealing vision, leaders increase the likelihoodthat managers and employees will accept the change.

Emotion and mood also plays a significant role in the negotiationprocess. Negativeemotions may limit the ability of the manager to be an effective negotiator. However,creating the appearance of negative mood, while maintaining a positive affect, may actuallycreate an advantage in negotiations.

Moods and emotions are particularly significant for those in customer servicejobs. Whilequality customer service is associated with positive moods and emotional states, the actualdemands of dealing with the public can create emotional dissonance. In addition, negativeemotions tend to have negative effects on customers.

In terms ofjob attitudes,research has shown that negative moods from a persons

experience at work tend to persist when the employee arrives home after work. However, it isunusual for a negative mood resulting from a bad day at work to carry over to the next day.

Negative emotions can lead to a number of deviant workplace behaviors. Because of theseand other negative consequences of negative emotions, managers should endeavor to improvethe mood of employees. Managers can use humor and give their employees small tokens ofappreciation for work well done. Research indicates that when leaders are in good moods,group members are more positive, and, as a result, the members cooperate more. Finally,selecting positive team members can have a contagion effect as positive moods transmit fromteam member to team member.

Challenges in Leadership Construct


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A noted management expert takes issue with the omnipotent role the academicians, practicingmanagers, and the general public has given to the concept of leadership. He says, in the1500s, people ascribed all events they didnt understand to God. Why did the crops fail? God.Why did someone die? God. Now our all purpose explanation is leadership. When a companysucceeds people need someone to give the credit to. And thats typically the firms CEO.

Similarly when a company does poorly, they need someone to blame. CEOs also play thisrole. But much of an organizations success or failure is just a matter of being in the right orwrong place at a given time. This point was illustrated in California during e summer of2003. Californias economy was in bad shape and the state faced a $28 billion deficit. Angryand frustrated, Californians wanted someone to blame and that someone was the statesgovernor. Gray Davis. With Daviss popularity ratings dropping as low as 21 percent citizens

petitioned for a recall vote on the governor. He was voted out in October 2003 and replacedby actor, turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger. In reality, Davis had little to do with thebudget deficit. Most of it due to the collapse of the dot.com craze which had powered thestates economy in the 1990s, and the stock market decline of 2000-02. In 2001-02 forinstance state revenues declined by early 17 percent. But Californians wanted a target for

their fiscal pain and frustration, and Davis played that role. The key leadership questionshould have been, How is ousting Gray Davis going to close Californias budget deficit? Theanswer is: It wont. One may or may not think Schwarzenegger is a good governor, but the

point is that leaders cannot do everything. There are limits.

In this article, we present two perspectives that challenge the widely accepted belief in theimportance of leadership. The first argument proposes that leadership is more aboutappearances than reality. You dont have to be an effective leader as long as you took one.The second argument directly attacks the notion that some leadership will always be effectiveregardless of the situation. This argument contends that in many situations, whatever actionsleaders exhibit are irrelevant.

Leadership as an Attribution:

It deals with the ways in which people try take sense of our cause and effect relationships.We said when something happens we want to attribute it to something else. The attributiontheory of leadership says that leadership is merely an attribution that people make about otherindividuals. The attribution theory has shown that people characterized leaders as havingsuch traits as intelligence, outgoing personality strong verbal skills, aggressiveness,understanding, and industriousness. At the organizational level, the attributions frameworkaccounts for the conditions under which people use leadership to explain organizational

outcomes. Those conditions are extremes in organizational performances. When anorganization has either extremely negative or extremely positive performance, people areprone to take leadership attributions to explain the performance. This tendency helps toaccount for the vulnerability of CEOs and high ranking state officials and their organizationssuffer a major financial setback, regardless of whether they had much to do with it, and alsoaccounts for why CEOs tend to be given credit for extremely positive financial resultsagain, regardless of how much or how little they contributed.

One of ore interesting findings in the attribution theory of leadership literature is theperception that effective leaders are generally considered consistent or unwavering in theirdecisions. One of the explanations for why Ronald Reagan (during his first term, as US

president ) was perceived as a leader was that he was fully committed, steadfast, andconsistent in the decisions he made and he goals he set. Former US President George Hebert


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Bush, in contrast, undermined the publics perception of his leadership by increasing incometaxes after stating categories during his campaign: Read my lips. No new taxes.

Transitions in Conflict Thought

It is entirely appropriate to say that there has been conflict over the role of conflict ingroups and organizations. One school of thought has argued that conflict must be avoidedthat it indicates a mal functioning within the group. We call this the traditional view. Anotherschool of thought the human relations view, argues that conflict is a natural and inevitableoutcome in any group and that it need not be evil, but rather has potential to be a positiveforce in determining group performance The third, and most recent, perspective proposes notonly that conflict can be a positive force in a group but explicitly argues that some conflict isabsolutely necessary for a group outperform effectively. We label this third school theinteractions view. Lets take a closer look at each of these views.

The traditional View:

The early approach to conflict assumed that all conflict was bad. Conflict was viewednegatively and it was used synonymous with such terms as violence, destruction andirrationality to reinforce its negative connotation. Conflict by definition, was harmful and wasto be avoided. The traditional view was consistent with attitudes that prevailed about group

behavior in the 1930s and 1940s. Conflict was seen as a dysfunctional outcome resultingfrom poor communication, lack of openness and trust between people and the failure ofmanagers to be responsive to the needs and aspirations of their employees.

The view that all conflict is bad certainly offers a simple approach to looking at the behaviorof people who create conflict. Because all conflict is to be avoided, we need merely direct ourattention to the causes of conflict and correct these mal-functionings to improve group andorganizational performance. Although research studies do not provide strong evidence todispute that this approach to conflict reduction result in high group performance, many of usstill evaluate conflict situations using this outmoded standard.

The Human Relations View:

The human relations view argued that conflict was a natural occurrence in all groups andorganizations. Because conflict was inevitable, the human relations school advocated

acceptance of conflict. Proponents rationalized its existence. It cannot be eliminated, andthere are times when conflict may benefit a groups performance. The human relations viewdominated conflict theory from the late 1940 through the mid-1970s.

The Interaction view:

While the human relations view accepted conflict, the interactionist view encourage conflictson the grounds that a harmonious, peaceful, tranquil, and cooperative group is prone to

becoming static apathetic and non-responsive to needs for change in innovation. The majorcontribution of the ineteractionist view therefore is encouraging group leaders to maintain anongoing minimum level of conflict enough to keep the group viable, self critical and creative.


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The inetractionists view does not purpose that all conflicts are good. Rather some conflictssupport the goals of the group and improve its performance these are functional constructivefirms of conflict. In addition, there are conflicts that hinder group performance these aredysfunctional or destructive of destructive forms of conflict. What differentiates functionalfor, dysfunctional conflicts? The evidence indicates that you need to look at the type of

conflict. Specifically there are three types: Task, relationship and process.

Task conflict relates to the content and goals of the work. Relationship conflict focuses oninterpersonal relationships. Process conflict relates to how the work gets done. Studiesdemonstrate that relationship conflicts are almost dysfunctional. Why? It appears that thefriction and inter personal hostilities inherent in relationship conflicts increase personalityclashes and decrease mutual understanding, which hinders the completion of theorganizational tasks However, low level of process conflict and low-to-moderate levels oftask conflict are functional. For process conflict to be productive, it must be kept low. Intensearguments about who should do what become dysfunctional when they create uncertaintyabout task roles increase the time to complete tasks and lead to members working at cross

purposes. Low to moderate levels of task conflict consistently demonstrates a positive effecton group performance because it stimulates discussion of ideas that helps groups perform

better.

Why do structures differ?

byV S Rama Raoon September 2, 2008

One extreme well call the mechanistic model. Its generally synonymous with thebureaucracy in that it has extensive departmentalization, high formalization, a limitedinformation network (mostly downward communication) and little participation by low levelmembers in decision making. At the other extreme is the organic model. This model looks alot like the boundary less organization. Its flat, uses cross hierarchical and cross functionalteams, has low formalization, possesses a comprehensive information network (using lateraland upward communication as well as downward), and involves high participation indecision making.

With these two models in mind, we are now prepared to address the question: Why are someorganizations structured along more mechanistic lines whereas others follow organiccharacteristics? What are the forces that influence the design that is chosen? In the following

paragraphs, we present the major forces that have been identified as causes or determinants ofan organizations structure.

Strategy:

An organizations structure is a means to help management achieve its objectives. Becauseobjectives are derived from the organizations overall strategy, its only logical that strategyand structure should be closely linked. More specifically structure should follow strategy. If

management makes a significant change in its organizations strategy, the structure will needto be modified to accommodate and support this change.
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Most current strategy framework focus on three strategy dimensions, innovation costminimization and imitation and the structural design that works best with each.

To what degree does an organization introduce major new products or services? Aninnovation strategy does not mean a strategy merely for simple or cosmetic changes from

precious offerings but rather one for meaningful and unique innovations. Obviously not allfirms pursue innovation. This strategy may appropriately characterize 3M Co, and Applecomputer but its not a strategy pursued by conservative retailer Marks & Spencer.

An organization that is pursing a cost minimization strategy tightly controls costs, refrainsfrom incurring unnecessary innovation or marketing expenses, and cuts prices in selling a

basic product, This would describe the strategy pursued by Wal-Mart or the makers ofgeneric products.

Organizations following an imitation strategy try to capitalize on the best of both the previousstrategies. They seek to minimize risk and maximize opportunity for profit. Their strategy is

to move into new products or new markets only after viability as been proven by innovators.They take the successful ideas of innovators and copy them. Manufacturer of mass marketedfashion goods that are rip-offs of designer styles follow the imitation strategy. This label

probably also characteristics well known firms such as IBM and Caterpillar. They essentiallyfollow their smaller and more innovative competitors with superior products but only aftertheir competitors have demonstrated the market is there.

Innovators need the flexibility of the organic structure, whereas cost minimizes seek theefficiency and stability of the mechanistic structure Imitators combine the two structures.They use a mechanistic structure in order to maintain tight controls and low costs in theircurrent activities, while at the same time they create organic subunits in which to pursue newundertakings.

Organization Size:

There is considerable evince to support the ideas that an organizations size significantlyaffects its structure. For instance large organizations those that typically employ 2,000 ormore people tend to have more specialization, more departmentalization, more vertical levels,and more rules and regulations than do small organizations. However, the relationship is notlinear. Rather, size affects structure at a decreasing rate. The impact of size becomes lessimportant as an organization expends. Why is this? Essentially once an organization has

around 2,000 employees, its already fairly mechanistic. An additional 500 employees will nothave much impact. On the other hand, additional 500 employees will not have much impact.On the other hand, adding 500 employees to an organization that has only 300 members islikely to result in a significant shift towards a more mechanistic structure.

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Motivating Employees in the Workplace