Question:
Discuss about the Managing People at Work for County Medical Society.
This report introduces the scenario at County Medical Society Answering Service where an employee named Grace Reed is facing problems to manage her subordinates after being promoted to a shift supervisor. The report introduces about the suggestions for better understanding of those subordinates’ motivation. Such suggestions are required to restore the good relationship among Grace Reed and her friends who are currently her subordinates. A discussion on a group decision-making technique has been elaborated here. Some suggestions are been given to develop the leadership abilities so that Grace Reed can better handle her subordinates along with improving her emotional intelligence to understand them in better way.
Suggestions for better understanding of the employees’ motivation
The various motivational theories provide a path to Grace Reed for understanding the motivation of her subordinates in a better way. It has been realized that the interpersonal relationships and supervision are the vital motivators for employees in an organization. The theorists of motivation have told that people normally are motivated through self interest for the economic gain for providing necessities in their life (Shayganfar, Rich & Sidner, 2016). Motivation is the emphasized cooperation between the labor and management for increasing the profit. It makes the representation of the reasons for the actions, desires and needs of the people. It can also direct a person’s behavior or make him to do the behavior repeatedly. Grace Reed has to make a proper utilization of the factor so that she can rebuild a good relationship with her subordinates to make them follow her instructions obediently without having any objections.
The Maslow’s need hierarchy theory says that a person gets motivated if the needs of that person are fulfilled from lower to higher orders (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2012). The esteem needs of an employee if gets fulfilled then he can be motivated to work and move to fulfill his self actualization need. Therefore, if Grace Reed appraises the performance of her subordinates whatever they do then it can motivate them to give a better delivery onwards.
The assumptions of McGregor states that people of two types can be motivated by lower and higher order needs respectively. The first category that does minimal work, lacks ambition, resistive towards change is self centered. They are motivated by Theory X. Theory Y gives the assumptions to motivate the people who are not resistant to change, innately able for performing and dependent on the management for the manifestation of performance (Derlaga & Berg, 2013). Grace Reed should apply those assumptions to understand her subordinates to categorize them and provide work accordingly.
The Herzberg’s two factor theory states that certain factors in the workplace lead to job satisfaction but if they are not present does not result to dissatisfaction in an employee’s mind. They are motivators and hygiene factors respectively (Patrick & Williams, 2012). The motivators such as challenging work, responsibility or recognition provides positive satisfaction whereas the hygiene factors such as job security, salary or fringe benefits if become absent then results to demotivation. Grace Reed should think to provide challenges and additional responsibilities so that her subordinates get motivated and also offer good salary with added benefits to avoid demoralization.
The latest ideas on motivation states about eustress, which makes an encouragement of hope, health and optimism (Derlega & Grzelak, 2013). It actually helps a person to control his response to a situation, which is already out of his control. The individual gets motivated from their own mental energy and makes a sustainable performance. This energy is required for Grace Reed as she is currently in a situation, which is out of her control.
The social exchange and equity theory states that the various social processes have the ability to influence human motivation whereas Adam’s theory of inequity states that getting involved in the situations, which are unfair makes people to be motivated (Hwang & Lin, 2012). Grace Reed has also become motivated as she is currently involved in a situation, which is critical and she wants to build a good social relationship with her subordinates to motivate them. She should make strategies to remove the inequities through rationalization.
Vroom’s expectancy theory states that people have expectation outcomes from their performance and behavior. The keys of the theory are valence, expectancy and instrumentality, which states that effort, leads to performance which is related to rewards. Even after applying those theories in the situation, Grace Reed will still find motivational problems in some of her subordinates who believe that their effort will not make an improvement of performance or will not give them rewards (Xia, Xu & Chen, 2013). It will also make her realize that moral maturity makes people to follow ethics whereas immature people will behave on egocentric motivations.
Discussion of a group decision making technique for assisting a team
There are several techniques that can be used for group decision making which include Nominal Group Technique, Brainstorming and Delphi Technique. The Nominal Group Technique is considered here for discussion where the members do not make the discussion of the issue and the potential solutions in verbal terms (Chai, Liu & Ngai, 2013). It is a process, which involves identification of the problem, generation of the solution and making a decision. This technique says the following steps to carry on,
Grace Reed should apply this technique to discuss the problems regarding disobedience of her subordinates with her superiors to resolve the issue.
Suggestions on the development of leadership skills on the basis of a leadership theory
Lewin’s theory of leadership comes under the traditional behavioral theories which states that leadership is of three styles. The first one is the autocratic style, which makes the leaders to use strong, controlling and directive actions for enforcing the activities, regulations, rules and the relationships (Nohria & Khurana, 2013). In such case, there is a nominal influence of his followers or subordinates. The second one is the democratic style, which makes the leader to be collaborative with his followers in performing actions. In such situation, the followers have an influence of higher degree. The third one is the Laissez-Faire style where the leader becomes failure for accepting his positional responsibilities (Dinh et al., 2014). In such cases, he creates a chaotic situation in the environment where he works.
The model of managerial grid is based on behavioral theory, which provides five different styles that a leader can adopt for achieving his goal.
Figure 1: Diagrammatic representation of managerial grid model
(Source: Liu, 2013)
The five styles include country club style, impoverished style, middle of the road style, produce or perish style and team style (Parris & Peachey, 2013). Those styles are termed on the basis of the value combinations of the leader’s concern for production and people.
To develop any of the leadership skills, Grace Reed firstly has to understand the situation properly and the nature of her followers or subordinates. If she feels to dominate those people due to their disobedient nature to make them work under her supervision then she should be an autocratic leader without any doubt (Druskat, Mount & Sala, 2013). If she notices that there are opportunities to make a collaborative discussion with them to sort out the issues then she should be democratic. In such case, she should let her subordinates to put their opinions for making a solution such as providing paid leaves during absence or paying extra remuneration for overtime work (George, 2012). If she notices that a messy situation has taken place which is out of control then she should look for Laissez-Faire style where she will not take her responsibilities due to her failure to control them.
According to the management grid model, Grace Reed should adopt the leadership style which will create a proper trade off of her concern towards the people and production of her organization.
Suggestions for improvement of emotional intelligence for better management of employees
The emotional intelligence is a critical indicator, which indicates the ability of a manager for dealing a conflict (Druskat, Mount & Sala, 2013). As Grace Reed has been promoted to a shift supervisor, she has a managerial role to resolve the conflict that she is currently facing in her subordinates. Those subordinates were previously her colleagues cum friends who are currently not obeying her as their senior authority. In such case, the emotional intelligence is a tool to get through the problem. The emotional intelligence consists of perceiving the emotion in other people, managing the adversity, power for controlling a person’s emotion and adaptation to change (Parris & Peachey, 2013). There are certain suggestions to improve the emotional intelligence so that the employees can be managed in a better way. They are as follows,
Grace Reed if enhances her self-awareness then she will be able to understand the exact position of her between her subordinates. If she listens carefully her subordinates’ opinion then she will be able to grab their intentions. Showing interest to the subordinates’ tastes can make those people emotionally attached to her and they will obey her. If she becomes able to manage other’s emotions then she will be able to change their decisions in her favor (Nohria & Khurana, 2014). If she makes appreciation of whatever her subordinates do then they will feel a sense of recognition and will go accordingly as per her given directions.
From the above discussions, the following recommendations can be made to achieve optimum level of success.
Proper motivation of the subordinates through effective leadership – Grace Reed should motivate her employees through motivational speech so that they obey her and work under her supervision with a happy mind.
Proper discussion of the issues and sorting out solutions – Grace Reed should discuss the issues regarding her authority to her superiors in an extensive manner so that the loopholes of her management can be easily identified and fixed with convincing solutions by the management.
Parameters for promotion should be made fixed – There should be certain performance measurement scales which will state the level of performance of each subordinates of Grace Reed. They will be promoted to higher positions if they prove themselves to be high scoring in the imposed parameters. This will motivate them to perform more effectively.
Arrangement of refreshment events – The Company should arrange parties so that the employees can maintain a friendly relationship among them apart from the professional relationship based on the authority in the corporate life.
Conclusion
The County Medical Society Answering Service Company provides support over phone to their patients and other customers whenever required. Certain quality issues in their end have made their clients such as doctors to hire expert callers personally. Grace Reed being a dedicated caller had been promoted to shift supervisor. She had felt the need to make her subordinates to be of that level of expertise so that her company gets more calls leading to more revenue. But she has faced issues regarding authority. If she becomes able to apply the motivational tools and group decision techniques to create enthusiasm in them with emotional attachment then she will surely lead the company to prosperity with a happy work life.
References
Chai, J., Liu, J. N., & Ngai, E. W. (2013). Application of decision-making techniques in supplier selection: A systematic review of literature. Expert Systems with Applications, 40(10), 3872-3885.
Derlaga, V. J., & Berg, J. H. (Eds.). (2013). Self-disclosure: Theory, research, and therapy. Springer Science & Business Media.
Derlega, V. J., & Grzelak, J. (Eds.). (2013). Cooperation and helping behavior: Theories and research. Academic press.
Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J. (2014). Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly,25(1), 36-62.
Druskat, V. U., Mount, G., & Sala, F. (2013). Linking emotional intelligence and performance at work: Current research evidence with individuals and groups. Psychology Press.
George, J. (2012). Promoting Emotional Intelligence of Students: The Teacher’s Role. EDUCATION FOR NATIONAL AND EMOTIONAL INTEGRATION, 147.
Hwang, C. L., & Lin, M. J. (2012). Group decision making under multiple criteria: methods and applications (Vol. 281). Springer Science & Business Media.
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Nohria, N., & Khurana, R. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of leadership theory and practice: An HBS centennial colloquium on advancing leadership. Harvard Business Press.
Parris, D. L., & Peachey, J. W. (2013). A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. Journal of business ethics, 113(3), 377-393.
Patrick, H., & Williams, G. C. (2012). Self-determination theory: its application to health behavior and complementarity with motivational interviewing. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 9(18), b35.
Saaty, T. L., & Peniwati, K. (2013). Group decision making: drawing out and reconciling differences. RWS publications.
Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (Eds.). (2012). Motivation and self-regulated learning: Theory, research, and applications. Routledge.
Shayganfar, M., Rich, C., & Sidner, C. L. (2016, March). An overview of affective motivational collaboration theory. In Workshops at the Thirtieth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
Xia, M., Xu, Z., & Chen, N. (2013). Some hesitant fuzzy aggregation operators with their application in group decision making. Group Decision and Negotiation, 22(2), 259-279.
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