The role of motivation in management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The role of motivation in management - Essay Example Post WWII, the concepts of mass production, economy and scale, and uniform production methods brought businesses to leadership in their respective fields. During these years the labor pool was made up most significantly of men who learned to be successful by following orders and following through until they were told differently. This is a mindset which created an effective military machine, and brought economic success back to their home country. However, today's labor pool is significantly different. The workers are educated, and have been taught to think as well as work. Today's workers want to know, and to some extent feel connected to the 'why' behind their tasks as well as the 'what' of their daily tasks. To a great extent, these workers no longer hold to the ideals of the previous generation, and are no longer motivated to work for a secure paycheck, and a 30 year career path. Today's workers are looking for an emotional connection, or what researchers call a psychological contract (Clair et. al, 2001) between themselves and their employers in order to feel personally connected to their position. Hence, business a usual, expecting workers to be satisfied by following orders and completing tasks, is no longer a corporate culture which will build a successful organization. CF&F may not yet realize the problems for which it is headed. Surrounded by a corporate culture which has successfully built the organization, the CEO, board and other top executives may not yet be aware of the extent to which the employee dissatisfaction can undermine the organization. We could say that the organization must tame the unruly beast of employee unrest before it begins to negatively affect production, quality, and profits. The company needs to tame the problem before the organization begins to suffer profit decay due to increased costs associated with increased turnover. The following recommendations will use the acronym T.A.M.E. to form a recommendation for change. For the duration of this recommendation, T.A.M.E. stands for: Transformation of the company culture by training upper and middle management in transformational leadership. Authority disbursement from the hands of the upper management to the department heads and workers. Mentoring transformational leaders at every level. They will learn within a measured level of accountability how to lead and transform those under them Empowerment of each department to control their immediate environment and business variables in order to maximize efficiency, and employee moral. Basis for the recommendation Tom Peters and Robert Waterman published Mc Kinney's 7-S Model in their article "Structure Is Not Organization" (1980) and in "In Search of Excellence" (1982). The model starts on the premise that an organization is not just structure, but consists of seven elements: Those seven elements are differentiated into so called hard S's and soft S's. The hard elements (green circles) are feasible and easy to identify. They can typically be found in strategy statements, corporate plans, and organizational charts. The four soft S's however, are less