• Home
• Module overview
• 1. The challenge of management
  • Introduction
  • 1.1 Defining management
    • 1.1.1 The art of getting things done through people
    • 1.1.2 Defining management by its functions
    • 1.1.3 Is management a profession?
  • 1.2 Management knowledge , skills and performance
    • 1.2.1 Types of managers
    • 1.2.2 Effectiveness and efficiency
    • 1.2.3 Managing the customer within
  • 1.3 The evolution of management thought
  • Conclusion

• 2. Understanding external environments

  • Introduction
  • 2.1 Putting the e xternal environment into focus
    • 2.1.1 Classifying external elements
    • 2.1.2 The changing environment
    • 2.1.3 The international dimension
  • 2.2 Relating the o rganisation to its environment
    • 2.2.1 So many issues: Which should you focus on?
    • 2.2.2 How do you acquire the relevant information?
    • 2.2.3 Clarifying the relationship between the internal and external environments
  • Conclusion

• 3. Social responsibility and ethics in management

  • Introduction
  • 3.1 Business is not value neutral: Social responsibility, obligation and responsiveness
  • 3.2 Focussing on ethics
    • 3.2.1 Why business ethics now?
    • 3.2.2 Ethical quandaries
    • 3.2.3 Approaches to ethical dilemmas
    • 3.2.4 Defining your ethics
  • Conclusion

• 4. Managerial decision making

  • Introduction
  • 4.1 Decision making and problem solving
  • 4.2 The nature of decision making as part of management
    • 4.2.1 Programmed and non-programmed decisions
    • 4.2.2 Certainty, risk and uncertainty
    • 4.2.3 Urgent vs important decisions
  • 4.3 Problem solving: making the most of opportunities
    • 4.3.1 Looking further at problem solving
    • 4.3.2 The effective decision making process
    • 4.3.3 Improving managerial problem solving: overcoming barriers
    • 4.3.4 Thinking 'outside the box' and creativity
  • 4.4 Interrelated problems
  • Conclusion

• 5. Managing strategically

  • Introduction
  • 5.1 Planning ahead
  • 5.2 Strategic management
    • 5.2.1 Some definitions
    • 5.2.2 The process of strategic management
  • Conclusion

• 6. Organisational design and structure

  • Introduction
  • 6.1 The terminology of organisational design
  • 6.2 Strategic organisational design and structure
    • 6.2.1 Types of organisational structure
    • 6.2.2 Strategic organisational design
  • 6.3 Teamwork
    • 6.3.1 The success of teamwork
  • Conclusion

• 7. Organisational culture and workforce diversity

  • Introduction
  • 7.1 Defining organisational or corporate culture
    • 7.1.1 Culture defined through its response to change
    • 7.1.2 Culture defined through the influence of the external environment
  • 7.2 Strong and weak cultures
  • 7.3 The functions of culture
  • 7.4 Creating and sustaining culture
  • 7.5 Types of culture
    • 7.5.1 Dominant culture
    • 7.5.2 Subculture
    • 7.5.3 Core values
  • 7.6 Changing culture
  • 7.7 Cultural diversity in the maritime industry
  • Conclusion

• 8. Change management

  • Introduction
  • 8.1 Dealing with change and the changing nature of change
    • 8.1.1 In what areas of the organisation can managers expect change?
    • 8.1.2 Reacting to change
  • 8.2 Key issues accelerating change
    • 8.2.1 External forces
    • 8.2.2 Internal forces
  • 8.3 Managing change
    • 8.3.1 Reactions to change
    • 8.3.2 Why employees resist change
    • 8.3.3 Emotions accompanying change
    • 8.3.4 Overcoming resistance
    • 8.3.5 Leadership and successful change
  • Conclusion

• 9. Motivating for performance

  • Introduction
  • 9.1 The nature of motivation
  • 9.2 Theories of motivation
    • 9.2.1 Do rewards really work? needs theories
    • 9.2.2 Are substantive rewards the only motivator? process theories
    • 9.2.3 Learning behaviour reinforcement theory
    • 9.2.4 Social learning theory
    • 9.2.5 Putting it all together systems theory
  • 9.3 The power of positive thinking
  • 9.4 Motivation: The implications for managers
  • Conclusion

• 10. Leadership

  • Introduction
  • 10.1 The nature of leadership
    • 10.1.1 Thinking about 'leaders' and 'leadership'
    • 10.1.2 Theories of leadership
    • 10.1.3 Refining our definition of leadership
  • 10.2 Perspectives on leadership
    • 10.2.1 Manager, leader, or both?
  • Conclusion

• 11. Teamwork

  • Introduction
  • 11.1 Work groups and group dynamics
    • 11.1.1 Work groups, work teams, taskforces, self-managing teams and team building
    • 11.1.2 High-performance teams
  • 11.2 Managing meetings and committees
  • 11.3 Group decision making
    • 11.3.1 Some advantages and disadvantages
    • 11.3.2 So, do groups make better decisions than individuals?
  • Conclusion

• 12. Managerial evaluation and control

  • Introduction
  • 12.1 Evaluation and control as a management process
    • 12.1.1 Why evaluate and control performance?
    • 12.1.2 Getting and using necessary information
  • 12.2 Levels of control
  • 12.3 Steps in the control process
  • 12.4 Assessing control systems
  • 12.5 Back to ethics
  • 12.6 Quality control systems
  • Conclusion

9.4 Motivation: The implications for managers

Not negative is not positive!

'If you don't hear from me, assume that you're doing a good job.' You might have said something like that to your staff? You're busier than ever and don't have the time to give people much feedback. Besides, they should be working on their own; they're empowered . Right?...Telling people that they will only hear from you when they have gone wayward isn't positive...or encouraging.

Leave-them-alone management doesn't reinforce good performance and won't inspire greatness. To encourage employees to produce their best...you've got to let them know that working that way matters more then just doing enough to keep you from chewing them out.

Adapted from Blohowiak, D (1995 ). Lead Your Staff to Think Like Einstein, Create Like Da Vinci, and Invent Like Edison . Irwin Professional Publishing.

The study of motivation can assist managers to think of ways to foster and sustain behaviours that help to achieve organisational and individual goals. When employees see that by achieving organisational objectives, they can also satisfy their own needs, you are well on the way to creating an environment in which employees are motivated. How can you increase people's level of motivation? Let us draw the discussion together. The research raises the following key issues/questions:

• personal importance
  Do they feel they are valued members in the workplace?
• realisation of expectations
  Are their goals realistic and are they able to achieve them?
• job challenge
  Do they consider their job as challenging and interesting?

So what gives you personal importance? Remember our example of the Melbourne cabbie and 'professionalism' and 'value' in Chapter 1?

An aside: First-day employee

My father had a small business, employing approximately fifteen people at any given time. We pasteurized and homogenized milk from farmers each morning, and put it into bottles for home use and for restaurants. We also put the milk into small containers for the school kids everyday. We also made a wonderful little thing called homemade ice cream.

We sold all of these milk products, and many more, in the front of a dairy building, which had been fashioned into a small store with a large soda fountain. During the summer months, there were rows and rows of eager tourists lined up at the ice cream counter, waiting for their daily indulgence of my father's most exquisite recipes of some twenty-seven flavors of homemade wonder.

Being such an extremely busy little store meant that the employees had to work fast and furious for hours at a time, with little rest. The swarm of tourists never stopped and our 'rush hour' lasted many hours on hot days.

I had worked for my father since I was young, as did all seven kids in our family. So I had seen many new employees come and go due to the fast and frenetic pace.

One day, in 1967, we had a new employee, Debbie, who wanted to work in the store for the summer. She had never done this type of work before, but planned to give it her all.

On her first day, Debbie made just about every mistake in the book. She added the sales wrong on the cash register, she charged the wrong prices for items, she gave the wrong bag of food to the wrong customer, and she dropped and broke a half gallon of milk. The torture of watching her struggle was too much for me. I went into my father's office and said, 'Please go out there and put her out of her misery.' I expected him to walk right into the store and fire her on the spot.

Since my father's office was situated within view of the sales counter, he had no doubt seen what I was talking about. He sat, thoughtful, for a moment. Then he got up from his desk and walked over to Debbie, who was standing behind the counter.

'Debbie,' he said, as he put his hand gently on her shoulder. 'I have been watching you all day, and I saw how you treated Mrs. Forbush.'

Debbie's face began to flush and tears began to well in her eyes as she struggled to remember Mrs. Forbush from the many women she had given the wrong change to or spilled milk on.

My father continued, 'I've never seen Mrs. Forbush be so polite to any one of my employees before. You really knew how to handle her. I am sure that she is going to want you to wait on her every time she comes in. Keep up the good work.'

In return for being a wise and compassionate employer, my father got a loyal, and hardworking employee for sixteen years...and a friend for life.

By Mary Jane West-Delgado
Reprinted by permission of Mary Jane West-Delgado © 1998, from A 6th Bowl of Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.

The Australian Institute of Management conducted a Workplace survey on productivity factors , investigating what Australians thought would motivate them to improve their work performance. The findings are presented below in order of importance. Do you relate to their suggestions? They should give you some indication as to what you can do to influence your work environment.

• more recognition of good work
• more information about what is going on
• more opportunities to develop skills, abilities, creativity
• more money
• more interesting work.

The vast array of literature on motivation can leave you wondering where to start. Following are some general guidelines to get you going.

• recognise individual differences and needs
• match people to jobs
• ensure goals are perceived as attainable
• provide ample opportunity for growth and creativity
• link rewards to performance
• check the system for equity
• remember that needs change.

To increase motivation and improve performance think about your organisation in two distinctive areas: the job and the system.

Consider this

Linking rewards to evaluation and control

Rewards are absolutely, positively everything!

Does your compensation program reflect your employee's contributions to your company's success? Has your company developed a way to track all aspects of performance, including, among other factors, leadership, customer services, and profitability? Do your employees value the rewards superior performance brings? Does everyone, for example, prefer money? Do you allow 'different strokes for different folks?' How often do you bestow rewards? Do you present awards spontaneously, or do people know that there are only specified times when they can hope to gain recognition for their efforts?'

Adapted from: Wetherbe, J C (1996). 'The world on time'. Vision Book Summaries , number 156.

Consider:

• praise and recognition
• more challenging work
• responsibility and authority
• participating in decision making.

The system

Consider:

• benefits
• promotion/advancement
• performance incentives
• working conditions
• training opportunities
• social climate.

If you think about the theories on needs and performance you will recall that people do what they do to satisfy their needs. So, before doing anything, people look for rewards. They ask themselves, what is in it for me? Given that, there are some key questions to ask when considering rewards.

• Should rewards be based on effort put in or the actual results?
• Should rewards be given to individuals or teams? How should rewards be divided up?
• What types of rewards will increase performance?
• What disincentives should be used for poor performance, if any?
• Is the balance of rewards offered and performance required sensible?

The next reading is a selection from Chicken soup for the soul . They are easy reading, short articles.

Reading 9.7

Phillips, Rick (1996). 'Jessie's glove'. 'Your work is recognised'. Putting people first'. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Home Delivery. Online (accessed 2000, 20 December). [3 pages]

Tallack, R (1996). Extract from Commercial Management for Shipmasters: A Practical Guide. The Nautical Institute, page 23.

The next reading looks at the management of a small team and covers some of the motivation techniques covered in this chapter.

Reading 9.8

Blair, Gerard M (2001). 'The human factor'. Starting to Manage. URL: http://www.ee.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art6.html (accessed 2001, 3 April). [5 pages]

To round off our discussion, read pages 387 to 390 in your text.

In your text

Bartol, K M; Martin, D C; Tein, M H and Matthews, G W (2001),
pages 387-390.

Key management concept

The 'whats' to accomplish - the performance measures on which rewards and incentives are based - must be tightly connected to the requirements of successful strategy execution and good company performance.

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