The Functions of Goals

Despite the problems associated with the goal model approach, the concept of organisational goals serves a number of important functions.

■ Goals provide a standard of performance. They focus attention on the activities of the organisation and the direction of the efforts of its members.

■ Goals provide a basis for planning and management control related to the activities of the organisation.

■ Goals provide guidelines for decision-making and justification for actions taken. They reduce uncertainty in decision-making and give a defence against possible criticism.

■ Goals influence the structure of the organisation and help determine the nature of technology employed. The manner in which the organisation is structured will affect what it will attempt to achieve.

■ Goals help to develop commitment of individuals and groups to the activities of the organisation. They focus attention on purposeful behaviour and provide a basis for motivation and reward systems.

■ Goals give an indication of what the organisation is really like, its true nature and character, both for members and for people outside of the organisation.

■ Goals serve as a basis for the evaluation of change and organisation development.

■ Goals are the basis for objectives and policies of the organisation.

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Goal Model Approach

The goal model approach concentrates on the study of organisational goals and the measurement of success against the realisation of goals. Etzioni suggests a potential disadvantage of this approach. Goals are ideals and more attractive than actual achievement. Organisations are characterised by low effectiveness. They rarely achieve their goals with any degree of finality and can, therefore, almost always be reported as a failure. The goal model approach results in attention being focused on the organisation’s lack of success in attaining goals at the expense of more meaningful forms of analysis. Instead of comparing organisations in terms of their stated goals, performance may be assessed relatively against different organisations. The concept of organisational goals is ambiguous. Goals may be expressed very simply: in the case of business organisations, for example, to make a profit, or to increase productivity. Such broadly based goals might be taken for granted and they tell us little about the emphasis placed on the various activities of the organisation in meeting its goals. In any case, profit might more correctly be interpreted as a reward to the shareholders or providers of capital, and a means of ensuring the continued existence of the organisation and maintaining its growth and development.

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Types of Work Group

            A number of different types of groups exist in the workplace. They can be clasified into two main categories: formal and informal. These categories and several subcategories are shown in figure.

Formal group is a group officially created by an organization for a specific purpose. There are two major types of formal groups: command and task. A command, or functional groups is a formal group consisting of a manager and all the subordinates who report to the manager. Each identifiable work unit (manager and subordinates) in an organization is considered to be a command group. A task group is a formal group created for a specific purpose that suplement or replaces work normally done by command groups. Task groups can be either relatively permanent or temporary. A permanent task group, often called a standing comittee or team, is charged with handling recruiting matters in a narrowly defined subject area over an indefinite, but generally lengthy, period of time.

Infromal group is a group that established by employees, rather than organization, to serve group member’s interest or social needs. There are two major types of informal group created: interest and friendship. An interest group is an informal group created to facilitate employee pursuits of common concern. A friendship group is an informal group that evolves primarily to meet employee social needs. Informal groups can benefit an organization by enhancing the flow of information and reinforcing the willingness of employees to work together cooperatively. They can be detrimental, however when members place group concern above important work goals or have a serious falling out. Thus managers need to understand informal groups because of their potential for influencing organizational effectiveness.

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Types of Reinforcement

            In behavior modification, four types of reinforcement are available to help managers influence behavior: positive reinforcment, negative reinforcement, extinction, punishment. Positive and negative reinforcement are aimed at increasing a behavior, while extinction and punishment focus on decreasing a behavior. Skinner argued that positive reinforcement and extinction encourage individual growth, whereas negative reinforcement and punishment are likely to foster immaturity in individuals and eventually contaminate the entire organization.

Positive Reinforcement

            Aimed at increasing a desired behavior, positive reinforcement involves providing pleasant, rewarding consequence to encourage that behavior. The rewarding consequence, such as praise, a raise, or time off, is said to be positive reinforcer if it leads to repetition of the desired behavior. Since individuals differ in regard to what they find pleasant and rewarding, managers need to monitor the effects of a particular reinforcer to determine wether it is effective in encouraging the desired behavior.

            Because individuals frequently do not execute a new behavior exactly as required when they first try it, managers often find it useful to encourage a new behaviors through shaping. Shaping is the succesive rewarding of behaviors that closely approximate the desired response until the actual desiered response is made.

Negative Reinforcement

            Negative reinforcement focuses on increasing a desired behavior, but it operates in a different way. Negative reinforcement involves providing noxious (unpleasant) stimuli so that an individual will engang in the desired behavior in order to stop the noxious stimuli.in other words, the desired behavior is reinforced in a negative way because the individual must engage in the behavior in order to get rid of an unpleasant condition.

Extinction

            Extinction involves withholding previously available positive consequences associated with a behavior in order to decrease that behavior. Suppose that the first few times an employee engages in clowning behavior during staff meeting, the managers laughs. The laughter might tend to reinforce the clowning to such a point that the behavior becomes disruptive. The employee’s clowning behavior would be gradually extinguished if the manager proceeded to refrain from (withhold) laughing in response to it.

Punishment

            Involves providing negatives consequences in order to decrease or discourage a behavior. Punishment differs from negative reinforcement in at least two important ways. First punishment aims to decrease or discourage an undesirable behavior, whereas negative reinforcement attempts to increase or encourage a desirable behavior. Second, punishment is usually applied after the individual has angaged in an undesirable behavior.

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Reinforcement Theory

            The reinforcement approach to motivation is almost the antithesis of cognitive theories, since it does not concern it self with the thought processes of the individual as an explanation of behavior. The best-known approach to reinforcement theory, sometimes also called operant conditioning theory of behaviorism, was pionered by psychologist B. F. Skinner. According to reinforcement theory, our behavior can explained by consequences in the environment, and therefore it is not necessary to look for cognitive explanations. Instead, the theory relies heavily on a concept called the law of effect, which states that behaviors having pleasant or positive concequences are more lkely to be repeated and behavior having unpleasant or negative concequences are less likely to be repeated.

            In the reinforcement process, a stimulus provides a cue for a response or behavior that is then followed by a consequences. If we find the consequence rewarding, we are more likely to repeat the behavior when the stimulus occurs in the future. If we do not find it rewarding, we are less likely to repeat the behavior.

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Goal-Setting Theory

            While goal setting is originally viewed as a technique, it is developing into a motivational theory as researchers attempt to better understand the cognitive factors that influence its succes. Goal-setting experts argue that goal setting works by directing attention and action, mobilizing effort, increasing persistence, and encouraging the development of strategies to achieve the goals. Feedback regarding result is also an essential element. The succes of goal setting in motivating performance depends on establishing goals that have the appropriate atributes, or characteristics. In particular, goals should be specific and measureable, chalalenging, attainable, relevant to the major work of the organization, and time-limited.

            Goal commitment, one’s attachment to determination to reach a goal, is another important element in the goal setting process. Goal commitment is affected by the major components of expectancy theory: effort-performance expectancy (can i reach the goal?), performance-outcomes expectancy ( if i reach, will i be rewarded?), and valence ( do i value the potential rewards?). Individuals are more likely to be commited to attaining goals when they have high expectaion of succes in reaching the goals, see strong connections between goal accomplishment and rewards and value the rewards. Hence expectancy theory and goal setting theory are largely compatible. The usefulness of goal setting in enhancing performance has strong research support. As a result, managers are likely to find it a very helpful motivational tool.

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Equity Theory J. Stacy Adams

            Equity theory is a theory that argues that we prefer situations of balance, or equity, which exist when we perceive the ratio of our inputs and outcomes to be equal to the ratio of inputs and outcomes for a comparison other. The selection of the person with whom we compare ourselves depend on our own view of appropriate comparisons. For example, in considering the equity of pay raise, a person might compare her or his pay with that of certain coworker, peers in other units, or a friend with similar credentials who works for another company. In making equity judgement, we consider equity in relative terms (comparison with other) rather than absolute terms (comparison with a set standard). The inputs we consider in assessing the ratio of our inputs and outcomes relative to the ratio of other may cover a broad range of variables, including additional background, skills, experience, hours worked, and performance result. Outcome might include such factors as pay, bonuses, praise, parking place, office space and work assignments. The inputs and outcomes that we use assess the equity of a situation are based strictly on our own perceptions of what is relevant.

            According to the theory, two types of inequities create tension within us. In the first, underreward, we percieve our inputs-outcomes ratio to be less than the inputs-outcomes ratio of a comparison other. In the second, overreward, we percieve our inputs-outcomes ratio to be greater than the inputs-outcomes ratio of the comparison other. Interestingly, research on equity theory suggest that we are usually able to overreward condition rather quickly-apparently concluding that our inputs are worth considerably more than we originally thought. Situations of underreward are usually more difficult to rectify.          

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Expectancy Theory Victor H. Vroom

 

The expectancy theory of motivation, originally proposed by Victor H. Vroom, argues that we consider three main issues before we expend the effort necessary to perform at a given level. 

EFFORT-PERFORMANCE EXPECTANCY

            When we consider effort-performance (EàP) expectancy, we assess the probability that our effort will lead to the required performance level. Our assessment may include evaluating our own abilities, as well as considering the adequacy of contextual factors such as the availability of resource. To see effort-performance expectancy works, imagine that you are well qualified for the project and that the  available resources are adequate, you might assess the probability of your effort leading to high performance (the E-P expectancy) quite high.

PERFORMANCE-OUTCOME EXPECTANCY

            With performance-outcome (PàO) expectancy, we assess the probability that our succesful performance will lead to certain outcomes. The major outcomes we consider are potential rewards (such as a bonus or a good feeling of accomplishment), although we are likely also to take into account possible negative result (such as loss of leisure time or family diruption).  In any given situation, there may be many potential rewards associated with performance. Reward provided by others, such as bonuses, or promotion are known as extrinsic rewards. In other hand, rewards that are related to our own internal experiences with succesful performance, such as feelings of achievement, challange, and growth, are known as intrinsic rewards. Considering various possible outcomes (both positive and negative), we form an assessment of the probability of our performance’s leading to desired outcomes. If our assessment of the P-O expectancy is high, the expectancy will contribute to our motivation. If our assessment is low, the expectancy could have a detrimental effect on our willingness to perform at a high level.

VALENCE

            With the valence component, we assess the anticipated value of various outcomes. If the available rewards interest us, valence will be high. However, the valeu of possible negative outcomes, such as the loss of leisure time or diruption of our family, may offset the valeu of rewards in a given situation. The available rewards will have a motivating effect only when we attach a high overall valence to the situation.


source

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Cognitive Theories

Need theories try to identify the internal desires that influence our behavior, but they do not go very far in explaining the thought processes that are involved. In contrast, cognitive theories attempt to isolate the thinking patterns that we use in deciding whether or not to behave in a certain way. Cognitive theories are not necessarily at odds with need theories; rather, they look at motivation from a different perspective. Because they focus on the thought processes associated with motivation, cognitive theories are sometimes called process theories. Three major cognitive theories that address work motivation are expectancy, equity, and goal setting theories.

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Clayton Alderfer ERG Theory

            Because of the criticism of maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, motivation researcher Clayton Aderfer proposed an alternative known as ERG theory. The name stems from combining maslow’s five levels of needs into three levels: existence, relatedness, and growth. Existence needs include psychological desires, such as food and water, and work-related material desires, such as pay, fringe benefits and physical working conditions. Relatedness needs address our relationship with significant other, such as families, friendship groups, work groups, and profesional groups. They deal with our desire to be accepted by others, achieve mutual understanding on matters that are important to us, and exercise some influence over those with whom we interact on an ongoing basis. Growth needs impel creativity and innovation, along with the desire to have a productive impact on our surroundings.

            According to ERG theory, we generally tend to concentrate first on our existence requirements. As existence needs are resolved, we have more energy  available for concentrating on relatedness needs. Then, as relatedness needs are somewhat fulfilled, we have the energy and support needed to persue growth needs. Thus ERG theory incorporates a satisfaction-progression principle similar to that of maslow’s hierarchy, since satisfaction of one level of need encourages concern with the next level.

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Frederick Herzberg Two-Factor Theory

Building on the work of maslow, psychologist Frederick Hezberg interviewed accountants and engineers working in the pittsburgh vicinity. He asked them to relate situations in which they felt particularly good about their jobs. Analysis of the interview data revealed a distinct pattern. Factors that seemed to make individuals feel satisfied with their jobs were associated with the content of the job. These factors were then lebeled motivators. On the other hand, factors that seemed to make individuals feel dissatisfied were associated with the job context. These were lebeled hygiene factors.

            Herzberg’s two-factor theory argues that hygiene factors are necessary to keep workers from feeling dissatisfied, but only motivators can lead worker to feel satisfied and motivated. The implications for manager are clear; Provide hygiene factors to reduce sources of worker dissatisfaction, and be sure to include motivators because they are the only factor that can motivate workers and lead ultimately to job satisfaction. The two-factor theory has been criticized mainly on the ground that researcher have been unable to obtain the same pattern of hygiene factors and motivators when they use other types of study method. Nevertheless, the theory is significant because it has helped focus managerial attention on the critical need to provide motivators and in doing so, has enhanced our understanding of motivation in the workplace.

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Source of Leader Power

Power is the capacity to affect the behavior of others. Leaders in organizations typically rely on some or all six major types of power:

Legitimate power stems from a position’s placement in the managerial hierarchy and authority vested in the position. When we accept a job with an organization, we are ussualy aware that  we will recieve direction related to our workfrom an immediate boss and others in the hierarchy. Normally we accept such directions as legitimate because these persons hold positions of authority.

Reward power is based on the capacity to control and provide valued rewards to others. Most organizations offer an array of rewards that may be under a manager’s control, including pay raises, bonusses, promotion recommendations, etc.

Coercive power depends on the ability to punish others when they do not engage in desired behavior. Forms of coercion or punishment that a manager may be empowered to use include criticisms, reprimands, suspensions, warning letters that go into an individual’s personnel file, negative performance appraisal, demotions, withheld pay raises, and terminations.

Expert power is absed on the possesion of expertise that is valued by others. Managers often have considerable knowledge, technical skills, and experience that can be critical to subordinates success.

Information power result from acces to and control over the distribution of important information about organizational operations and future plans. Managers usually have better access to such information than subordinates and some discretion over how much is disseminated to work-unit members.

Referent power result from being edmired, personally identified with, or liked by others. When we admire people, want to be like them, or feel friendship toward them, we more willingly follow their directions and exhibit loyalty toward them. Some observers argue that former CEO Lee Iacocca’s initial success in turning around the chrysler corporation was based partially on the fact that he possessed referent power in relation to the work force.

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How Leader Influence Others

Why do people accept the influence of a leader?. Often, they do so because leaders have power. Yet Khatharine Graham, chairperson of the influntial Washington Post Company, notes, “Nobody ever has as much power as you think they do.” In this article, i examine the major sources of power and whe ways that leader can effectively use the power they potentially have available.

Source of Leader Power

Power is the ca[pacity to affect the behavior of others. Leaders in organizations typically rely on some or all six major types of power.

1.     Legitimate power

2.     Expert power

3.     Coercive power

4.     Expert power

5.     Information power

6.     Referent power

Although all six types of power are potential means of influencing others, in actual usage they may elicit somewhat different levels of subordinate motivation.

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Hierarchy of Need Theory

One of the most widely know theories of motivation is the hierarchy of need theory, developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow and populerized during the early 1960’s. It argues that individual needs form a five-level hierarchy.

            According to this heirarchy, our first need is for survival, so we concerntrate on basic phsycological needs, such as food, water, until we feel fairly sure that these needs are covered. Next, we concern ourselves with safety needs, which pertain to the desire to feel safe, secure, and free from threats to our existence. Once we feel reasonably safe and secure, we turn our atention to relationships with others in order to fulfill our belongingness needs, which involve the desire to affiliate with and be accepted by others.

With support from loved ones, we focus on esteem needs, which are related to the two-pronged desire to have a positive self-image and to have our contributions valued and appreciated by others. Finally, we reach the highest level, self-actualization needs, which pertain to the requirment of developing our capabilities and our creativity, seeing our inovative ideas translated into reality, pursuing new knowledge, and developing our talents in uncharted directions. Needs at this level highest level are never completely fulfiled, because as we work to develop our capabilities, both our potential and our needs for self actualization grow stronger.

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Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal is the proces of defining expectation for employee performance, measuring, evaluating and recording employee relative to those expectation and providing feedback to the employee. A major purpose of performance appraisal is to influence, in a positive way, employee performance and development. In addition, the proces is used for a variety of other organizational purposes, such as determining merit pay increases, planning future performance goals, determining training and development needs, and assesing the promotional potentional of employees.

            Because performance is multidimensional, performance appraisal methods must consider various aspects of a job. The most widely used approaches focus on employee behavior (behavior-oriented) or performance result (result-oriented). Whitin the behavior-oriented category, two important assessment means are graphic rating scales and behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS).

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Job Description

Job description is a written statement of what the worker actually does, how he or she does it, and what the job’s working conditions are. You use this information to write a job specification; this lists the knowledge, abilities, and skills required to perform the job satisfactorilly.

            There is no standart format for writing a job description. However, most description contain sections that cover:

1.     Job identification

2.     Job summary

3.     Responsibilities and duties

4.     Authority of incumbent

5.     Standarts of performance

6.     Working conditions

7.     Job specification

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Job Analysis

Organizations consist of positions that have to be staffed. Job analysis is the procedure through which you determine the duties of these positions and the characteristics of the people to hire for them. Job analysis produces information used for writing job description and job specification.

            The supervisor or HR specialist normally collects one or more of the following types of information via the job analysis:

1.     Work activities

2.     Human behaviors

3.     Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids

4.     Performance standarts

5.     Job context

6.     Human requirements

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Demographics

            Demographics are the characteristics of people composing work groups, organizations, countries or specific markets, such as individuals betwen the ages of 18 and 25. Changing demographics play an important role in marketing, human resources management, finance and other areas.

            Employers are likely to face pressures from increasingly diverse work force. They will meet with other employees who comes from various region and various age. Some organizations are providing training to encourage employees to be more tolerant of language, age, race, and ethnic differences, to identify and reject racial and gender preferences in hiring and promotion, and to be responsive to the handicapped.

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Communication Skills

Comunication skills are the abilities to send and recieve information, thoughts, feelings, and atiitudes. The ten managerial roles assume that managers have at least basic written, oral, and nonverbal communication skills. Because managers spend a large portion of their time communicating, recruiters look for people who can communicate effectively. A common complaint is that profesional program in universities spend too much time developing student’s technical skills and not enough time developing their communication skills. In fact the importance of good commuication skills cannot be stressed enough. At a time when organization increasingly expect employees to work with minimal supervision and to show more initiative competent communication skills are becoming a must.

            The need to productively emploey workers of both sexes and varied cultural and ethnic backgrounds puts a further premium on communication. Manging diversity, after all, isn’t just adapting to the new realities of the U.S. labor force, it also means ensuring that all workers contribute their best ideas and efforts in an intensely competitive global arena. But it isn’t always easy to evaluate the qualifications and performance of workers whose cultural background and languages are unfailiar to you. The following insught lists some pitfalls to avoid in communicating with a diverse group of people.

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Conceptual Skills

Conceptual skills involve viewing the organization as a whole and applying  one’s planning and thinking abilities. Managers with good conceptual skills are able to see how the organization’s various departement and function relate to one another, how changes in one departement can affect other departement. They use conceptual skills to diagnose and assess different type and management problems that might result.

            Conceptual skills are among the most difficult to develope because they involve the way one think. To use conceptual skills well requires thinking in terms of relative priorities, rather than ironclad objectives and criteria, relative chances and probabilities, rather than certainties, and rough correlations and overall patterns, rather than clear-cut, cause-and-effect relationship. Conceptual skills are especially importantto the manager’s decisional roles of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. All of which require an ability to scan the environment for trends. Conceptual skills are needed by all managers, but especially top manager. They must percieve change in the organization’s environment and respon to them promptly by making right decision.

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