Human Resource Management Individual assignment - Essay Example

Motivation is a fundamental concept of human resource managementthat refers to the processes that influence an individual’s direction, intensity and persistence of effort to achieve a particular goal of goals. The managements of organizations strive to motivate their employees with the view to improving their productivity thus enhancing the profitability of the companies. The three aspects of motivation include intensity, direction, and persistence. Intensity refers to the measure of how hard the employees of an organization try to complete a task and achieve a goal. Direction refers to the guidance the employees receive to achieve a particular goal while persistence refers to the ability of employees to maintain their endurance and efforts towards achieving a goal. Managers must, therefore, strive to safeguard the three aspects of motivation by utilizing various theories of motivation (Mitchell & Marks, 1986). Among the most effective theories of motivation is the Maslow’s hierarchy of need and theory X and Y. Maslow’s theory asserts that human needs are hierarchical and that people will always work to satisfy their needs systematically. The needs include physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization. Managers should utilize the hierarchical nature of the human needs to motivate their employees systematically. Any employee, for example, should have the ability to satisfy their physiological needs, which include food shelter and clothing. The rest of the needs arise with promotion and improvement in the lifestyles of the employees. Theory X and Y, on the other hand, provide managers with an effective understanding of employee attitudes towards work thereby recommending appropriate ways of managing and motivating each group of employees. Introduction to teamwork as a concept Teamwork is yet another vital concept of human resource management that refers to the cooperative effort of employees, thus team, in completing a particular task. Effective managers strive to encourage teamwork in their organizations. Teamwork thrives on functional relationship both among the employees and with their managers. The team requires that managers become team, leaders. Team leaders have effective interpersonal and communication skills. Additionally, such leaders are empathetic to the feelings and listen to their employees thereby encourage them to work alongside others in teams to complete tasks (Pettijohn, Pettijohn & Taylor, 2004). Teamwork safeguards the quality of work since the various task enjoys unique opinion and expertise of the team members. Additionally, teamwork provides employees with a chance to grow with the managers striving to nurture the employees. Teamwork has various benefits key among which is the effectiveness of problem-solving. The cooperation of the various employees in the team provides diverse ideas thereby providing functional solutions to the problems. Furthermore, the diversity of both ideas and abilities result in a creative workforce capable of designing new products and ideas. Teamwork encourages healthy competition as the various members of a team strive to come up with new ideas and products. Additionally, teamwork nurtures functional relationships among the employees thereby creating cohesive and equally efficient workforces in organizations. Despite such advantages, teamwork has numerous other disadvantages and, therefore, requires effective management. The disadvantages include social loafing, social dilemmas and unnecessary wrangles that may affect the cooperative nature of the teams thereby slowing productivity, in most of such cases, decision making become a protracted process that rarely result in functional decisions (Bruce & Ricketts, 2008). Introduction to an organization as a concept Organizations refer to entities that comprises of several people, has collective goals and has both internal and external environments. The principle of separation in business management explains that organizations are legal entities capable of representing themselves in courts and make systematic decisions that strive to safeguard the accomplishment of the specific goals. The internal environment in organizations entails the relationships among the various people and the existence of support resources that ensure the accomplishment of the goals. The external environments constitute a fundamental relationship with organizations since they join the organizations to the society. The external environment may often constitute competition and markets. The relationships that an organization develops with the external environment, therefore, influence the success or failures of the organization (Cropper & Merkowitz, 1998). Organizations require effective management to accomplish their respective goals. Various theorists have fronted ideas and theories of management to help managers provide effective management for their organizations key among such theories are the contingency theory and the systems theory. The contingency theory explains that every organization and situation in the organizations require tailored management techniques owing to their uniqueness. The management technique should address the issues in the organizations and situations thereby enhancing the efficiency of operations. The systems theory, on the other hand, views organizations as systems that have various elements all of which must function independently but in tandem with the others to create a holistic and cohesive organization. The elements often occur in the form of various departments. Analysis of motivation in a UAE company Microsoft Gulf is one of the best employers in the United Arabs Emirates. The company borrows its management techniques from the parent company in the United States and, therefore, employs various techniques in motivating its employees. Firstly, the company strives to develop a friendly yet competitive work environment. The company provides its employees with all the necessary support resources to enable them foster the innovation of the company and enhance productivity. The company has cultural diverse workforce comprising of people from the various cultural background but creates a conducive environment for every employee to achieve his or her productivity. The company encourages the development of functional relationships among the employees to enable them consult and foster the progression of the company in the lucrative market. Among other techniques, the company employs in motivating its employees include a competitive remuneration. Microsoft Gulf is one of the leading companies in the region in terms of payment. The company pays its employees according to their respective roles and responsibilities at the company. Additionally, the company provides numerous other benefits to the employees. Such perks as motor vehicle allowances, study leaves, paid leaves, maternity leave, and health insurance among many others ensure that the employees strive to improve their productivity at the company. The various motivation techniques the company employees resonate with the various theories of motivation thereby enhancing the endurance, direction and persistence of the employees towards achieving the goals of the company. Analysis of teamwork in a UAE company Microsoft Gulf encourages teamwork among its employees. Various departments operate as teams with the sale and marketing departments utilizing operational teams to venture into new markets throughout the region. The teamwork the company employs falls into three categories depending on the uniqueness of every team and the operations they undertake. The three include transition processes, action processes, and interpersonal processes. Transition processes include the analysis of missions, specification of goals and formulation of strategies. Such are vital processes that require the diversity and creativity achieved only through teamwork. Microsoft Gulf has often launched various products and services in the region most of which show the effectiveness of the transition processes. Action processes include monitoring the progress the various products and services make towards the attainment of goals, system monitoring, and coordination. The final category is the interpersonal processes, which includes conflict resolution and management, motivation and building of confidence and affect management. The three categories of actions show the company’s commitment to creating functional teams and use them to pitch its products and services. The company embodies the success of teamwork and team leadership technique of management. The managers provide the employees with the freedom to work in teams and to improve their capacities. The effective conflict management under the interpersonal processes provides effectively functional teams that do not experience the negative effects of teamwork (Bruce & Ricketts, 2008). Analysis of organization structure in the UAE Company With more than three hundred and ninety employees, Microsoft Gulf has an appropriate organization stricture that clusters various entities within the organization to ensure that the company achieves its objectives in the region. The company has a series of bureaucratic structures, which include a series of managers such as the human resource, marketing, production, administration, and sales managers heading respective departments. Additionally, the company coalesces with its mother company in the United States and numerous other subsidiaries throughout the world. The company, therefore, has a reliable command structure coupled with numerous other models and techniques of communication that ensure that decision making is both centralized and often reflective of the market trends in the region. The company has an equally functional organizational culture that enables the various employees from various cultures top work together. The culture mergers the various cultures thereby encouraging teamwork and cohesive structure of operation. Communication is a vital aspect of the structure of the company. The company, therefore, uses various models of communication to encourage interactions with its employees. The companies of the company enjoy numerous resources that enable them to complete their tasks effectively and promptly. The clear stricture of the organization ensures prudent decision-making coupled with an equally reliable means of communicating the decisions to the rest of the employees. The structure of the company that comprises of various offices safeguards the efficiency of operations. Clear goals and objectives of every department ensure that the company achieves its growth and sustained profitability objectives every in every financial year. Suggestions of improving motivation, teamwork and organization structure Microsoft Gulf is a successful company that continues to record profits annually. However, just as any other company it strives to expand and grow its market share in the region. The company can achieve this by improving its motivation techniques, teamwork, and organizational structures. Some of the suggestions to help the company achieve such include the need to provide its employees with additional perks. Tech companies in the United States including Netflix introduced unlimited paid maternity leaves. Microsoft Gulf should employ a similar technique to attract the female employees in the region. Additionally, the company should provide supper systems for their employees. Such support systems as nurseries for employees with babies, counseling services, meal plans and recreational facilities would help improve the morale of the employees besides enhancing the relationships that would in turn enhance teamwork at the company. Communication is essential in management. The company should adopt open door policies of management and adopt an appropriate top down and down top models of communication. With such effective communication techniques, the management of the company would gain real-time information about the issues affecting the employees. Feedback and permitting employees to engage in informal relationships and conversations would also improve human resource management since the management would gain information on the issues affecting both the company and the employees thus make decisions to improve the situation appropriately. As a tech company, Microsoft Gulf should develop and adopt appropriate technologies of communication in the company to enable the management work remotely even when in travels or on holiday. Such techniques would enhance efficiency in decision-making. Implications of the suggestions The suggestions above will have numerous implications including increasing the operational cost of the company. Developing the various support systems including gyms, nurseries and health facilities among many others would be a costly undertaking that requires adequate financial allocation. Additionally, providing unlimited maternity leave to pregnant employees would increase the demand for new employees to take over from the few employees who take their leaves. The same implication will arise in the implantation of the technological inclusions such as video conference facilities among many others (Ramlall, 2004). The company will have to recruit additional employees and expand some of its department to accommodate the changes. While the company will incur additional operational costs given the cost implications of setting new information systems, developing the support resources and recruiting additionally employees, the company is likely to experience improved operational efficiency and profitability arising from the changes. The company will, for example, attract and retain the best brains, as more women will express interest in working with the company. Additionally, the management will have unparalleled access to the information about the issues affecting the employees. With such information, the management will make decisions and given the efficient models of communication, such decisions, and the resultant changes will take effect immediately thus improving the efficiency of the company. In retrospect, the changes will have long-term benefits to the company resulting in improved profitability not only in the region but also globally. Conclusion Teamwork, organizational structure, and motivation are vital concepts in management that affect the operations and productivity of organizations. Both concepts affect the people in the organizations and, therefore, require effective management, organizational structure, which is among the most important entails the allocation of tasks, supervision and coordination thereby ensuring that the organizations achieve particular goals. Motivation and teamwork, on the other hand, regard the management of people in organizations thereby ensuring that the organization achieves its goals. Employees are always the most vital resource in any organization, and the organizations must, therefore, adopt the best management practices to enhance the productivity of the employees thus the success of the organization. Employee motivation ensures that the employees carry out their roles effectively to achieve the goals of the organization. Motivation is vital since the organizations often seek to grow a feature achievable only through hard work and dedication. Organizations must, therefore, employ appropriate techniques including competitive and commensurate remuneration of employees and the development of both competitive and friendly work environments to encourage the employees to improve their productivity. Encouraging teamwork at the organization improves the quality of work output. However, teamwork requires effective management characterized with adequate channels of communication and team leadership to develop and manage the best teams that will foster creativity and improvement. Without effectiveness management, teamwork is likely to experience numerous negativity that would slow productivity thus compelling the organization to incur loses. References Bruce, J. A., & Ricketts, K. G. (2008). Where’s all the teamwork gone? A qualitative analysis of cooperation between members of two interdisciplinary teams. Journal of Leadership Education, 7(1), 65-75. Cropper, R. J., & Merkowitz, R. F. (1998). Cluster—a great way to work. Journal of Extension, 36(1). Mitchell, L. & Marks, M.L. (1986). "Employee participation in a quality circle program: Impact on quality of work life, productivity, and absenteeism". Journal of Applied Psychology 71 (1): 61–69. Pettijohn, C., Pettijohn, L., & Taylor, A. (2004). The relationships between food service wait staff skills, satisfaction, commitment and their levels of customer orientation. International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, 5 (2), 43-59. Ramlall, S. (2004). A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations. The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 5 (1/2), 52-63. Read More