Improving the Relationship between the Supervisor and Staff - Coursework Example

Case Study: Improving the Relationship between the Supervisor and Staff Name Institution Summary Grace Reed is a well-experienced and efficient employee of an answering service company. She has been promoted to the rank of supervisor, but her new job has not been easy. Her employees show a very low level of motivation and productivity. Their lack of respect for her and her frustration with them has further led to adoption of a non-consultative and authoritarian decision-making style, which has led to further strain on their communication and morale. She has also shown loss of temper due to the frustrations, raising the need to reassess her level of Emotional Intelligence. This report therefore suggests four areas of change for Grace in her new job; application of Herzberg’s Two factor Theory of Motivation in understanding her employees’ motivation better, adoption of brainstorming as the best decision-making technique for her team, taking up a transformational style of leadership and reasons why improving on her emotional Intelligence could help in managing her employees better. Introduction Grace Reed is a well-trained and efficient worker, and this is reflected in her ability to deliver highly on her eight-hour shift. However, she faces considerable challenges in handling her new role, in which she doubles as supervisor at an answering service company run by the County Medical Society. Her juniors, who also happen to be her friends, are not taking her as seriously as they should, considering her new position as their senior. They fail to perform their duties, and expect her to be understanding as their peer. They also ignore her complaints regarding their performance. This indicates a lack of authority on her part, requiring a change in how she relates to them, while maintaining their friendship. An appropriate leadership style and power structure will be useful, considering that it is affecting overall performance. Nevertheless, Grace has a good relationship with both her juniors and seniors, which is advantageous, because she can easily facilitate change. However, her frustration at the workplace has led to her to outbursts of anger, leading to tension. This is unfortunate because a leader is supposed to be more in control of her emotions. To compensate for the challenge of her lack of authority also, she adopted an authoritative and non-consultative approach to decision-making, and this has been met with resistance. It can be concluded that the employees suffer from low morale hence motivation, considering that they make mistakes frequently, do not really feel concerned, and often have to be helped by Grace to finish their backlogs. Applicability of Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory of Motivation Motivation refers to the factor that drives the action of employees at the workplace (Hafiza et al., 2011). As a supervisor, Grace will need to identify what exactly motivates each worker, and most importantly, what is lacking in their motivation. According to Ghazi et al. (2013), Herzberg’s theory suggests the existence of motivator and hygiene factors, which determine motivation levels. Motivators are those that create more job satisfaction and are more related to individual needs, for instance responsibility, growth and achievement. If these are provided in good quantities, there is greater motivation. Hygiene factors comprise of management-related conditions, for instance salaries, working conditions and job security. According to the theory, hygiene factors do not demotivate employees but rather, they tend to be dissatisfied when the factors are absent. According to Herzberg, employees are driven entirely by motivation factors as these provide a greater sense of meaning and achievement when provided. However, it has to be remembered that motivation factors are not identical for everyone (Hafiza et al., 2011). Each person’s should therefore be identified. Grace will need to gather information from the employees regarding these issues, then come up with the best remedial approaches to fixing them, or if there are policy issues involved, communicate them to her superiors. In line with the theory therefore, there should be a focus on three main measures: Job Enrichment - This involves the addition of more employee job satisfaction sources, primarily through additional responsibilities at work, leading to more autonomy, control and authority Job Enlargement - This involves increasing of the tasks linked to a job, while offering training, hence reducing monotony in jobs Job Rotation.-This involves a planned movement of employees from one task or job to the other, leading to exposure to more skills and experiences hence job satisfaction Improving Communication through Brainstorming Brainstorming involves an informal, relaxed approach to the solving of problems at group level through lateral thinking. In it, all general aspects of challenges at the workplaces will be broken down into components and worked on (Lewis et al., 2006). Grace will have to assemble her group and appropriately and let them know of the problem in their performance. Each member should then be given a chance to participate in the decision making process, moderated by Grace. The meetings should take the form of a rather informal classroom with a whiteboard, on which the moderator will write each idea contributed, so that everyone else can see and suggest further improvements. According to Robbins et al. (2013), individuals will need to be encouraged to contribute ideas which may even initially seem unreasonable, but later refined and transformed into creative solutions, or lead to more ideas. During sessions, the rewarding or criticizing of ideas should be avoided, as the aim will be to open up new possibilities while breaking down wrong ideas relating to the problem. At the end of the session, the ideas will be evaluated, as a way of further exploring the solutions by use of conventional means. The outcome will have the benefit of the ideas generated being owned by the team-members, so they will be more committed after being involved in development of solutions. Brainstorming is further likely to be fun hence members can bond well within a rewarding and positive environment. Brainstorming will be best if taken through a number of steps: a. Definition and agreement on the objective of a session b. Brainstorming of suggestions and ideas within certain time limits c. Categorization and refinement of the ideas generated d. Assessment and analysis of the results e. Prioritization of the available options generated f. Agreement on how action is to be done g. Monitoring and follow up on implementation Adoption of Transformational Leadership Grace will have to learn to be more effective as a leader, preferably by taking up a transformational style of leadership. This is based on the Transformational Leadership Theory originally attributed to the work of James MacGregor Burns (1978). In this, both the leader and the followers will help one another to attain greater motivation and morale. This however requires a significant change in the organization and individuals’ lives. An extension of the idea by Bernard M. Bass (1985) suggests that people like their leader due to virtues such as honesty and trust among others (Winkler, 2010). Leadership must therefore ensure; a) Idealized Influence. The leader should totally be a role model, showing traits that will only help to do her job best b) Individual Consideration. There should be an emphasis on the needs of group members, so that whatever is available ensures maximum motivation of everyone c) Inspiration. The leader should provide meaning to tasks, through clearly outlining goals or visions, with the charismatic element being applied whenever necessary d) Intellectual stimulation. The leader should be able to present a challenge to the followers and encourage them to give their contributions towards it As a transformational leader, there will be the need to exhibit integrity and focus more on development of an inspiring and broad vision that will guide the team towards attaining its goals in future. The leader will, through the frequent brainstorming of ideas, raise the priorities for the future then try and motivate each individual to achieve the vision, manage the delivery of its items, and most importantly, ensure the creation of more successful and strong teams to handle whatever task they have at hand. Carter et al. (2013) would recommend that as a leader, she will have to take up three main strategies; Ensuring that higher-order needs are satisfied more Making sure that each individual is more aware of his or her role or task’s importance in determining overall success Getting each person to focus more on group and the medical society’s goals, placing them above their personal issues and interests Why Greater Emotional Intelligence? Typically, a good leader is one who is always in control of his temper regardless of the challenges at hand (Stevens, 2011). This may not be said of Grace, whose frustration with her employees has led to an outburst. A good leader would also be one to fully trust her employees, listens to them, is easily approachable and will always go for informed and careful decision-making. In Grace’s case, the employees do not give her any reason to trust them. Her accessibility has also been taken advantage of, with everyone thinking she understands their personal issues and would excuse them, whatever they do. According to Goleman (2009), Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to one’s ability to manage and understand his or her emotions and the people around too. When the leader has a high level of EI, she knows what she feels, the meaning of the emotions and their possible effect on others. Grace requires maximum EI, as it is a recipe for success. She should not be shouting when under stress but rather remain in control and assess situations soberly. EI here involves five elements; 1. Self- motivation. Being self-motivated will enable her to consistently seek the attainment of set goals, and also to have the best quality standards 2. Self-awareness. A more self-aware leader will know what she feels and how this affects other people, therefore will be humbler and acknowledge her weaknesses 3. Social skills. These will facilitate communication, so that she will be able to be ready to listen to anything, hence enable marshalling of the team’s support for each activity and making them happy or anxious to work on it 4. Self-regulation. With this, she will be able to avoid verbally attacking her juniors or even make unrelated decisions basing on emotion or even compromise on her beliefs, hence can avoid being swayed by her personal relationships with staff 5. Empathy. With this, she will be able to understand other people’s needs better, hence more listening, employee development and constructive criticism Conclusion Grace Reed can improve her abilities as a supervisor. This will be achieved through reference to Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory of Motivation, which suggests more job enrichment, enlargement and rotation, as a means of boosting job satisfaction. The use of brainstorming as a communication technique will also enhance participatory decision-making and eliminate resistance. A transformational leadership style in which Grace will ensure more emphasis on higher order needs, awareness on the importance of individual roles and placing of group above individual interests will further be necessary. An improvement in Emotional Intelligence will on its part ensure a more self-controlled, empathetic and self-motivated leadership for the team. References Carter, M, Armenakis, A , Field, H and Mossholder, K. (2013). Transformational Leadership, Relationship Quality, and Employee Performance during Continuous Incremental Organizational Change. Journal of Organizational Behavior. Vol. 34(7): 1-17 Ghazi, S, Shahzada, G and Khan, S. (2013). Resurrecting Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory: An Implication to the University Teachers. Journal of Educational and Social Research. Vol. 3 (2): 445-451 Goleman, D. (2009). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. London: A&C Black Hafiza, N, Shah, S and Jamsheed, H. (2011). Relationship between Rewards and Employee’s Motivation in the Non-profit Organisations of Pakistan. Business Intelligence Journal. Vol. 4 (2): 327-334 Lewis, P, Goodman, S and Fandt, P. (2006). Management: Challenges for Tomorrow's Leaders. New York: Cengage Learning Robbins, S, Decenzo, D and Coulter, M. (2013). Management: the Essentials. New York: Pearson Stevens, W. (2011). Emotional Intelligence as a Leadership Strategy to Make Leaders Great. Munich: GRIN Verlag Winkler, I. (2010). Contemporary Leadership Theories: Enhancing the Understanding of the Complexity, Subjectivity and Dynamic of Leadership. New York: Springer Science & Business Media APPENDICES Motivators Hygiene Factors The Job Itself Job Security Growth Possibilities Salary and Working Conditions Recognition Supervision Career Advancement Personal Life Level of Responsibility Status Achievement Company Policy & Administration Interpersonal Relations Appendix1: A Table Listing Possible Herzberg Motivational and Hygiene Factors Appendix2: Flow Chart Showing the Nature and Outcomes of Transformational Leadership Appendix3: Table Summarizing the Components of Emotional Intelligence Read More