Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes - Essay Example

Importance of goals in motivation and leadership Name Course Instructor Institution Date According to (Latham, 2007, p 267-268), a goal is defined as a regulatory mechanism for monitoring, evaluating and adjusting one’s behavior. On the other hand, motivation is defined as a combination of both external and internal factors that invoke the urge and stimulation in people to continuously develop interest and commitment to a job or towards attaining a certain set goal. Motivation often results from the interaction of both the conscious and unconscious factors. Finally leadership refers to the process of directly influencing, guiding and directing people towards attainment of a common objective or mission. From the definitions of the three terminologies, one can easily point out a commonality between them; they all have something to do with achievement. Modern and current leadership now goes beyond management. While ordinary management involves getting things done using the available resources within the organization in accordance with the formal practices and culture within the organization, leadership, on the other hand, often involves navigating through changes and developing new initiatives that may be unique in the concerned industry. It is possible to identify and come up with a wide range of approaches to leading change in an organization, depending on the use of authority by the leader, and the amount of freedom given to subordinates. (Smith, Locke & Barry, 2010). In an organizational setting for instance, effective leadership provides the required strategic directions hence each member develops a clear map of his personal as well as organizational expectations. Motivation then boots leadership by providing the subsequently needed morale to attain such goals. Hence, goals, motivation cannot be successfully separated; they go alongside one another. Goals provide a sense of direction to leaders. (Bandura, 2007). One of the key responsibilities of any leader serving in any capacity is to provide direction and guidance. In fact we argue out that goals are the unifying factor that keeps organizations moving, changing and achieving more. Goals are basically what direct employees efforts and activity. The nature and type of orders that any leader will issue out to his subordinates must go in line with the expected results and performances from the same subordinates. Otherwise what instructions would a leader issue out if he or she had no particular objective to work towards? It will in fact be possible to develop any plan of action without specific goals on mind . Once goals are set and spelled out, the leader is therefore in position to offer direction on the right path as well as provide necessary motivation towards achieving the same goal. Absence of goals therefore implies no particular course of action and subsequently no need to motivate. Since every action in this case is considered satisfactory, then there lacks an ultimate organizational mission to be achieved or fulfilled and therefore no need for leadership. Therefore, motivation only exists where there are goals to be achieved. In the same line, leaders can only give directions where they expect to attain certain goals. Goals help leaders to asses, evaluate and rate their own performance. In modern management, leaders, just like any other ordinary employee in an organization, are subject to performance review by higher authorities within the organizational hierarchy. Most leaders are answerable to top executives, chief executive officer or management boards for the case of typical corporate organizations. Anybody in a leadership position therefore needs to make goals from which such persons can assess their individual performance by considering what they managed to achieve and what they failed to do. (Durham, Knight & Locke, 2007). Constant knowledge and realization that there is somebody more superior above any given leader becomes a driving force that propels such leaders to strive towards achieving most of the items on your goals list. Motivation comes into this in two ways. Every person feels individually motivated at the realization of personal achievements. The act of achieving one’s goals motivates an individual to keep on working even towards what seemed initially unattainable. Secondly, in the case of performance review, the management of any given organization opts to motivate organizational leaders depending on the number of goals attained hence the success of their leadership approaches and strategies. Such perks as promotional transfers, upwards remuneration review and contract extension are some of the common motivational perks often given to leaders to motivate them achieve more goals. Leaders need to develop goals in order to ascertain key performance indicators. Organizations, as social entities, are judged and subsequently rated depending on the key performance indicators. These are physical ad observable features that will give a clue of the general performance of the organization. Goals and key performance indicators therefore become the most effective way through which leaders can judge individual performance as well as his subordinates. ( Ryan & Deci, 2000). Key performance indicators will easily show the overall progress made towards achieving certain goals. A leader will thus easily note any laxity or impending failure by evaluating such observable signs. Motivation in this case will either be used to sustain the continuity of a given trend or initiate a certain trend in the organization. (Latham, 2007, p 267-268) notes that, Instead of being the type of leader who sucks the energy away from others, resolve to be the kind of leader who strives to bring passion and positive energy to the workplace every day. Your employees have just helped you pull your company through one of the nation’s worst economic periods. It’s time they had a source of positive energy. By evaluating goals against key performance indicators, a leader will be in position to either encourage the existing culture, or psyche up his subordinates to change their approach and general strategy. This further illustrates that there can be no motivation without certain goals in mind and just as leadership loses meaning and value where there are no defined goals. If any leadership wants organization to achieve its goals, it subsequently realizes the need to harness the passion, efforts and energy of every employee. The best strategy and form of motivational approach to do this is to challenge every employee to link their individual goals to the organization’s goals. Leaders thus make it a part of their performance appraisal or goal setting process. Every employee is made to understand how their work and role contribute to the organization’s success. This linking gives employees a larger context for their work and confidence at work place, which is so important to engagement. It subsequently adds up to satisfaction and comfort at the job place hence maximum output from the employees. Leaders are often supposed to have visibility of employee goal alignment across the organization. Aligning leadership workforce in this way helps such a leader to see if the organization is well positioned to achieve its goals, or if priorities and efforts need to be realigned. Leadership is influencing others, and this cannot be achieved without effective communication. If you’re struggling with communicating to your employees, first work on your ability to influence individuals by choosing words that are impactful to carry your message. Then you need to figure out how to communicate to a larger audience. ( Ryan & Deci, 2000). Goals are designed by the leadership but until they communicate the same to their team members, such goals will forever maintain personal convictions. Subsequently, until the team members are motivated to work towards the same goals, the communicated goals will continuously remain mere policies. Goal setting, an inseparable attribute of leadership, determines the kind of motivation to be employed in various scenarios. There exist two broad types of motivation, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. It therefore becomes prudent that leaders clearly understand that employees or subordinates are not all the same; and thus effective motivation of the same employees requires that one develops an exhaustive understanding of the different types of motivation. Such knowledge and understanding will enable the leader to better categorize or group his or her team members and subsequently apply the appropriate and most effective type of motivation. In most cases keen leaders will out find that each member is different and each member's motivational needs vary from time to time and depending with various circumstances. For instance, some people respond best to intrinsic motivation "motivation from within oneself" and will easily meet any obligations of an area of their passion. Contrary to the earlier group, others people will respond better to extrinsic motivation. Such people perceive their environment as a platform that provides them with difficult tasks that can be dealt with provided there is a reward upon completion of that task. ( Hays & Hill, 2001). This broad knowledge therefore puts leaders in prime positions to determine the kind of motivation that best motivates his or her employees to attain clearly defined goals. Goal setting helps leaders spell out future activities and engagements. Leaders alongside their team of subordinates must have penultimate achievement for which they work day in day out, and this becomes the team’s ultimate goal. Operations are likely to stall in cases where there is leadership without goals. Questions such as, “What is to be done next? And what should follow?” are effectively answered by effective and attainable goals setting. In fact, planning and budgeting aspects in virtually all organizations are founded on goals hence leadership. A leader will spell out the series of activities to be done at the organization. However, the end result of such activities must be clearly stated. If an organization intends to increase its revenue proceeds by increasing the quantity of output, a number of issues will have to be elaborated. The leadership will design the whole policy hence program which aims at such an increase. Besides, the leadership will also be required to find a way of making the subordinates work towards achieving the extra products (goal) without raising any upheavals or negative commentary hence motivation. Should the program implementation yield fruit, both the leadership and the subordinates will be equally motivated to carry on. (Kennedy, 2010). It’s not rare to witness organizational goals that are little more than slogans or vision statements. By this statement, I make references to common clichés like “Dominate the market” or “Beat the competition”. In a more practical sense, these kinds of goals are hard for employees to align their efforts to because they’re not concrete and measurable. On their own, they do not communicate any distinct and tangible aspects that can be used to gauge success or failure. For instance, how does one realize that a given organization is dominant on the market or has managed to beat it major competitors. (Francesco & Gold, 2005) Indicators Organizational goals, as all other goals, are more effective when they describe the expected outcome in a measurable form and leadership should strive to provide goals in that form. The aim is to create meaningful goals that employees can feel accountable for in some way. If they don’t understand what the organization is trying to achieve, and what success looks like, they won’t understand how they can contribute to the effort. Good leaders know that setting concrete, measurable goals for the organization is the first step to success Leaders depend on goals to improve efficiency. Leadership uses goals assessment outcomes to evaluate and ascertain the progress, achievements as well as failures made. This does not end there. The leadership uses such evaluations to identify individual as well as organizational strengths and weaknesses. Such information is therefore used when setting up subsequent goals, often trying to make them more attainable basing on the earlier performance. Even in simple situations like a soccer game, the captain must set initial goals which are then reviewed at half time to enhance efficiency in the next half play. In some human resource groundbreaking research in 2011, leading talent management research and advisory services firm Bersin & Associates found that organization that review and evaluate their goals at least quarterly, or even more frequently, eventually outperform those who follow an annual cascading goal model. Regularly reviewing organizational goals allows you to be more nimble and stay responsive to a dynamic and changing environment. Leaders therefore have responsibility to track progress on organizational goals, make any necessary adjustments to the goals, their priorities or assigned resources, and communicate progress, status and any changes to their workforce. (Erez, Earley & Hulin, 2009). Strong and most effective leaders clearly understand the means through which they can maximally harness the potential of their workforce by way of offering effective goal setting and management. Such leaders understand that by setting clear, concrete and attainable goals, and by subsequently communicating the same to their subjects as well as aligning employees’ efforts and activities towards the same guarantees organizational success. The major leadership role in such a case thus remains tracking and communicating individual progress as well as providing the necessary moral and environment for attaining the same. Motivating and inspiring team members and subordinates to attain their own personal goals and reach their potential are the defining attributes of good leaders. Involving each person in planning, design and implementation of organizational goals for the future makes everyone feel like an appreciated and valued member of the group. Such gestures help to get them excited for new projects. Setting high attainable goals for individual performance challenges team members to step out of their comfort zone. Rewarding group members for their hard work shows them that they’re appreciated and make them feel like an integral part of the team. (Button, Mathieu & Zajac, 2006). References Durham, C., Knight, D. & Locke, E. (2007). Effects of leader role, team-set goal difficulty, efficacy, and tactics on team effectiveness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 72, 203-231 Erez, M., Earley, P. C. & Hulin, C. L. (2009). The impact of participation on goal acceptance and performance: A two step model. Academy of Management Journal, 28, 50-66. Button, S., Mathieu, J. & Zajac, D. (2006). Goal orientation in organizational research: A conceptual and empirical foundation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 67, 26-48. Francesco, A., & Gold, B. (2005). International organizational behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Hays, J. M., & Hill, A. V. (2001). A preliminary investigation of the relationships between employee motivation/vision, service learning, and perceived service quality. Journal of Operations Management, 19(3), 335-349. Kennedy, K. P. (2010). Training: The key to keeping your head in a crisis situation. Naval Engineers Journal, 122(3), 73-85. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67. Bandura, A. (2007). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. Smith, K., Locke, E. & Barry, D. (2010). Goal setting, planning and organizational performance: An experimental simulation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 46, 118-134 Read More