Team Motivation: Management Theories - Essay Example

 Team Motivation: Management Theories Abstract This work describes a situation in which a banking manager has just been assigned to her first supervisory position. Within the company, a problem has arisen in which the manager's employees are passing customer phone calls to management inappropriately, rather than dealing with the nature of the calls themselves. The manager has a growing concern about motivation among her staff and has begun examining new outlooks for motivation. This work describes potential available methods and management theories designed to increase effectiveness amongst her staff and better enhance current process involving her subordinate team. Team Motivation: Management Theories A recently promoted manager, arguably, maintains little experience when dealing with subordinate motivational issues and often relies on theories of management to test effective methods of leadership. In the existing case, the manager in charge of the staff in the telephone banking service has come to recognise a growing problem with employee performance. Her staff, responsible for handling customer enquiries using a straightforward computer system, are not required to maintain a vast knowledge of bank practices in order to perform their functions. It has been implicated that 10% of customer calls do require a more extensive understanding of banking services and the calls are therefore directed to the manager for completion. The dilemma is that the staff is passing a significant amount of calls to the manager that could easily be addressed by her employees; suggestively affecting the manager's own productivity in which her skills could be put to better use than by performing subordinate responsibilities. It has been implied that the bank maintains a vertical management structure, in which subordinates report directly to their superior manager. Further, it would seem that leadership takes a strict regulating role in monitoring employee activities in the company. A renowned behavioural theorist, Douglas McGregor, developed a Theory X and Theory Y view of employee motivation in the 1960's. Under Theory X, a management system generally assumes that employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can (Wikipedia).Theory X managers will assume that employees exhibit little ambition without extensive incentive programmes and should be closely supervised and controlled. Theory Y managers believe in a more self-managed Team Motivation 4 approach to employee behaviour and assume that staff can work independently of control processes and find motivation through ambition and management praise for well-performed work. The bank manager, assuming she is forced by senior leadership to take a Theory X approach to managing her staff, must enforce the tight controls on her team emphasised by bank policy. The current traditional system suggests that the manager must monitor employee activities using time recording systems and tightly defined job descriptions. This creates a certain level of restriction placed on the employees that may imply that they are perceived as inherently untrustworthy from the date of employment and are treated accordingly. Contributing literature suggests that companies are beginning to realise that workers thrive only under Theory Y and that Theory X is becoming extinct (The Economist 2006, p.19). The bank manager, in this case, may wish to consider loosening some of the rather authoritarian policies of the bank (such as tardiness equal to pay deductions) and allow her staff more freedom on the job. In the current Theory X philosophy indicated by bank policy regarding staff, the employees are actually exhibiting behaviours that solidify the assumption that workers are traditionally lazy. The fact that they are forwarding customer calls to the manager that could easily be handled by electronic banking service processes supports Theory X: Employees are avoiding responsibility with regularity. Should the manager continue supporting Theory X assumptions, in order to reduce the amount of unnecessary calls forwarded to her, the manager might use a disciplinary approach and clearly indicate consequences for improper customer support. To illustrate, as a Team Motivation 5 Theory X manager, she might demand compliance to expectations of customer service results by offering formal reprimand, leading to possible termination, if evidence supports that the calls were improperly forwarded to her. Further, she may even support pay check deductions for each instance occurring where the customer support issue could have been handled effectively using established practices. It is highly likely that Theory X management styles would hinder staff productivity due to increased resistance to the manager's authoritarian, results-driven policies. However, it would ensure a level of compliance leading to improved customer service but might put a significant strain on employee turnover rates as the staff feels compelled to seek other employment. In a more positive scenario, the manager might consider a more liberal method of motivating and managing her staff with the Theory Y approach. Motivation is the desire within a person causing that person to act (Mathis & Jackson 2003, p.69). Under the current tight restrictions that the employees are facing, their desire to forward unnecessary calls is likely based on feeling tightly controlled and dominated by pay deduction disciplines. As a primary approach to becoming a Theory Y boss, she may consider loosening some of the restrictions for employee tardiness and replacing them with less dramatic policies, such as verbal warnings leading to a formal "write-up" in their employee folder. Few can argue that an employee seeks employment primarily for receipt of a steady pay check, and the bank's current policy threatens that security. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, a template for understanding motivational factors, suggests that security is one of the primary needs of an employee. Should that security be threatened, Maslow suggests that any further motivation on behalf of the employee is reduced or eliminated. If the bank Team Motivation 6 manager is able to reinforce the employees' level of security by loosening the pay deduction policy, it is likely she will generate a more positive adherence to job description. Under Theory Y, the manager may consider positive reinforcement as a means with which to drive compliance. Positive reinforcement is a pleasurable reward following a desired behaviour that induces people to continue the behaviour (Gomez-Mejia et al 2005, p.516). The manager can approach this in two distinct ways: First, she can publicly praise an employee who effectively manages higher volumes of customer calls without forwarding them to management. This would send the message that compliance to company standards is rewarded and appreciated. Secondly, assuming it is within the manager's authority to do so, she may even consider further training regarding bank processes to aid a superior employee in handling the 10% of calls that would normally be forwarded to her. A small pay increase for gaining further knowledge of the company would be a tremendous incentive for the employees to work towards effective customer service. This method of reward would not only increase motivational efforts to succeed in the employee job function, but would alleviate her need to respond to unnecessary customer calls. When it comes to staff motivation, it is not just the rewards that count, but how the scheme is implemented (Arnold 2005, p.31). Knowing a staff well can help a manager coach more effectively (Wyman 1998, p.83). Under current bank policy, the tight restrictions placed on the employees keeps the manager in a distinctly separated position of manager versus employee. She may wish to consider making herself more visible amongst the staff and offering a weekly meeting forum in which the Team Motivation 7 employees can directly address and identify potential problems or make suggestions to enhance the customer call centre. This would establish, foremost, that the bank considers their employees to be valuable members of their team framework and allow a potentially informal forum in which to better understand the personality and needs of the manager. In this meeting, the manager would be able to distribute specific company literature describing the deadline and efficiency expectations of the company to allow the staff to feel integrally linked to process, rather than the traditional bank process of authoritarian versus subordinate. In reference to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the feeling of belonging that these meetings would create is a step further toward enhancing employee motivation. It is clear at this point that the manager's main goal is to ensure that her staff is successfully handling customer calls according to policy. Another method she might adopt to improve motivation is in establishing effective work teams. This type of team is a group of employees with freedom to function without close supervision (Longenecker et al 2006, p.401). Because her staff is made up of five employees, she could empower her employees to attend informal training seminars, conducted by the manager, that offer insights into deeper levels of company practices. Once the employees are well-trained in issues not addressed by the standard questions normally used to handle customer enquiries, they can be equipped to handle some of the additional 10% of calls normally forwarded to the manager. By establishing work teams, a specific employee who is unsure of how to handle a particular customer issue can self-direct the call to another employee who feels competent to handle the request. This would create an efficient call system, reducing excess workload on the manager, and offer a system of reward for employee performance. There is little Team Motivation 8 doubt that such a work team should be monitored, but the reduction in customer complaints regarding wait time could certainly enhance senior leaderships' view of her department's efficiency. All of the methods available for enhancing motivation fall under a more contemporary Theory Y approach which suggests that most people have a capacity to display a high degree of imagination and ingenuity in sorting out problems (Anonymous 1998, p.111). Training initiatives producing employee incentives will indicate to her staff that the manager believes strongly in her team's capabilities and will work to enhance employee satisfaction based on cooperative behaviours. The manager must focus on her role in offering extrinsic motivation; the desire to perform a behaviour to obtain an external reward (Morris & Maisto 2005, p.332). The ultimate goals of the manager are to improve organisational efficiency, alleviate the unnecessary pressures put on her by excessive call handling, and motivate staff productivity. Unless she takes an active approach to relationship-building, it is likely her department will be plagued with the same continuing issues. Influence is the process by which people successfully persuade others to follow their advice, suggestion, or order (Lewicki et al 2003, p.192). Becoming an influential manager starts with the Theory Y approach that allows the team to respect not only her authority, but her willingness to embrace her staff as functional, important elements of her department. Once she accomplishes a positive influential position, the possibilities for developing her team are virtually endless. Under Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the ultimate goal in employee motivation is to reach the stage of self-actualisation in which the employee's desire to perform is based on utilising oneself to maximum potential. Under the current processes at the bank, the Team Motivation 9 employee motivation to succeed is virtually non-existent; supported by their desire to forward unnecessary customer calls to the manager. Moving away from traditional bank practice, the manager is building security, belonging, self-esteem, and moving the employees further to enhance overall productivity in her department. To accomplish an end to the undesired behaviours of her staff and to achieve organisational goals, the manager must clearly indicate all expectations related to her team's job functions. She needs to firmly establish training and development practices that indicate proper levels of communication when dealing with live customers. Because she has noticed a breakdown in her team regarding unsatisfactory levels of service, there should be no level of uncertainty when it comes to her role in illustrating job description. Taking a more Theory X approach, it must be firmly presented that non-compliance to established norms of customer service will not be tolerated. In conjunction with a more liberal management policy, the manager can never lose sight of the absolute fact that she is the authoritarian in her department. Most, if not all, of her efforts will be in vain if she allows too much informal management techniques where the employees see her as a comrade more than a superior. Another crucial element to establishing new practices within the bank is to ensure that there is a level of equity both in reward and punishment. For instance, she must remain consistent when it comes to implementing methods for employee feedback. She cannot reprimand one specific employee for tardiness and allow another employee to get away with being late simply because their customer service skills are exemplary. Maintaining the perception among her staff that she is an Team Motivation 10 equitable superior not only guarantees a certain level of conflict reduction, but reinforces the idea that company expectations apply to everyone and policy affects the entire team on equal levels. It is clear to see that breaking away from Theory X will radically alter the manager's department away from traditional, working practices. It is logical to assume that senior leadership continuously monitors her performance as well and will reward/discipline based on her area's productivity data. The manager not only has the interest of the staff and the organisation to protect, but hers as well. In today's world, team development is one of the most positive, critical aspects of organisational success and it would seem that the manager cannot continue to function under Theory X assumptions if she hopes to develop an effective call centre. Because the employees are not motivated under current practices, she must develop a completely different management style that directly involves active participation and knowledge-sharing. The bank's current practice of tight controls is seriously impacting the employees' desire to succeed and is, in turn, affecting customer relations. The manager has a difficult task in undoing Theory X management practices, and if her Theory Y approach is successful, there is little doubt that productivity will increase dramatically in the customer call centre department. Team Motivation 11 References Anonymous. Jun 1998, 'The Way We Were', Management Today. London p.111. Arnold, John. Jun 2005, 'Team Tactics', Promotions & Incentives. London. p. 31. Economist, The. Jan 21 2006, 'Survey: The X and Y Factors', The Economist. London. Vol. 378, Iss. 8461, p.19. Gomez-Mejia, Luis R., Balkin, David B. & Cardy, Robert L. 2005, Management: People, Performance, Change. 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill Irwin. p.516. Lewicki, Roy J., Saunders, David M., Minton, John W. & Barry, Bruce. 2003. Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill Irwin. p.192. Longenecker, Justin G., Moore, Carlos W., Petty, J. William & Palich, Leslie E. 2006. Small Business Mnagement: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis. 13th ed. Thomson South-Western. p.401. Mathis, Robert L. & Jackson, John H. 2003, Human Resource Management. 10th ed. Thomson South-Western. p.69. Morris, Charles G. & Maisto, Albert A. 2005, Psychology: An Introduction. 12th ed. Pearson Prentice-Hall. P.332. Wikipedia. Theory X and Theory Y, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/theory_X_and_theory_Y Wyman, Sala G. Feb 16 1998, 'Helping a team reach new heights', InfoWorld. San Mateo. 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