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Some authors[34] say that as a manager and especially as an executive manager you are responsible for all fields of business in your company: for marketing and sales, for finance, for information technology etc. You should understand how things works (the IKEA-case and Kamprad’s attention to all details can illustrate this statement) and also how employees work whose knowledge in one particular field are deeper then yours. These are two main corner stones of success. How to reach them? The best solution can be continuous replacing inside organization. As a result manager receives variety of experiences and knowledge in different functions, business units, companies, and even countries. The positive effect of such a “moving” results in understanding, how the whole business operates; of the impact of managerial decisions on the rest of the organization. Managers can also transfer best practices to new areas while moving; he learns how to lead in a variety of situations and he develops strong networks inside and outside the organization[35].
Some other authors[36], especially from the business world, used to think that an effective manager must not be satisfied with his education degree and training, but must always be ready to catch advanced education opportunities. The advanced degree is MBA-program; if this level was reached then never avoid additional seminars, courses and workshops. In contrast to the thirst group of authors who are speaking about continuous replacement, these theories accept the idea of receiving deep knowledge in one particular area.
These two approaches and also all theories about teaching show us how important is for every manager to develop himself and his employees. Continuous self-development, learning and teaching are the best ways to success and effectiveness.
Motivation of employees
Like the previous characteristics, the ability to motivate your employees to work is also an indispensable one if you want to be effective as a manager. The psychology of motivation is tremendously complex, and what has been unravelled so far with any degree of assurance is very small. What I will do here is (1) give a definition of what motivation is, (2) very briefly going across the major theories, classical and contemporary ones, and (3) address some possibilities how an affective manager can implement the ideas the theories offered in reality, which is of most importance. But first some theory.
Stephen P. Robbins gives us the following definition of motivation in his book Organizational Behavior (2001, p. 155)[37]: “[…] the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal”. Thus intensity (1) is concerned with “how hard a person tries”, with direction (2) we mean “toward attaining the organizational goals“and persistence refers to “how long a person can maintain his or her effort”.
In the past, especially in the 50’s, a lot has been written about how managers can motivate their employees. We can classify these theories in 5 categories.[38] These are:
1. Need theories:
- Hierarchy of Needs Theory (A. Maslow) / ERG Theory (C. Alderfer)
Two Factor Theory (F. Herzberg)
Theory X and Theory Y (D. McGregor)
These theories all depart from the thought that to motivate your employees, you have to satisfy certain needs. Maslow’s hierarchical model, a classical one, says that you first have to satisfy physiological needs (i.e. hunger, thirst, …), then you have to offer them safety (from physical and emotional harm), consequently you must satisfy them socially (affection, acceptance, …), after that you can motivate them by satisfying their esteem (internal as well as external), and only then, when all the previous needs are satisfied, you can motivate them by letting your employees actualize themselves through their work (i.e. self-fulfilment). So if you want to motivate someone, according to Maslow, you need to understand what level of hierarchy that person is currently on and focus on satisfying those needs at or above that level.
Реферат опубликован: 16/05/2006