Leadership and Organisational Behaviour

The next example is an essay about leadership and organizational behavior. Read the introduction, body and conclusion of the essay, scroll down.

You are a professional blogger working for Leadership and Management Magazine. You have been tasked to write several blog entries.

LeadershipRichard Branson (owner of Virgin Media) is unquestionable an example of good leadership with his Laissez-Faire approach. His leadership puts trust in his employees and therefore his employees gain confidence in themselves to complete the job that they were hired for.

Virgin Media is a brand that has steadily grown under Richard`s Leadership and Virgin Media also has a positive image in the media so people will want to work for Richard.

Virgin Media compares favourably to a company like RyanAir – where Michael O`Leary adopts the Autocratic approach. Michael O`Leary until recently didn`t recognise any Pilots Union. So, RyanAir`s employees were practically voiceless. Michael O`Leary Authoritarian style of leadership for RyanAir is proving to be an unsuccessful style of leadership as his image in the media has become very poor.

Richard Branson`s successful style of leadership in my opinion – Virgin Media was the result of merger of smaller companies – NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile. Under Richard`s leadership the company employed creativity techniques to attract attention with celebrity involvements in their advertisements and marketing stunts to get more attention on Virgin Media, such as Richard jumping off the roof of the Palms Hotel Casino in Las Vegas in 2007.

Winston Churchill was good historic leader.

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He was the leader of Britain during the very troubling times of war. His powerful use of literature during war helped inspire a nation to get through an extremely difficult time in their lives. His quote of remaining resolute: … Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy is a strong show of strength to his people during his speech.

After the Nazis had bombed and destroyed the Commons Chambers in 1943, Churchill stated that the layout of the Chamber was responsible for the two-party system which in turn creates democracy: “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” so the rebuilding of the Chambers was completed in the same design as before. This shows us that Churchill had the utmost belief in a Democratic style of leadership for Britain even after he finished his tenure as Prime Minister. Winston`s impact on the turn of events – Churchill led Britain to victory against the Nazis during the 2nd World War, with the help of the allies. Churchill had steadfast doggedness to his goal of defeating the Nazis. His doggedness attitude and style of leadership lead to his nickname of The British Bulldog.

Delivery and Submission

1x blog post (circa 400 words)

Instructions: Your next blog post should be titled “Motivation” and contain the following:- Describe the reward systems in place in 2 organisations of your choice and compare them with the motivational theories of Maslow, McClelland and Vroom

– Explain how these 2 organisation measure engagement and motivation and reflect on whether the reward systems are effective- Suggests ways to motivate staff

Delivery and Submission 1x blog post (circa 400 words excluding diagrams)

Motivation

The Maslow Theory of Motivation of building a pyramid of motivation where Physiological needs for an employee must first be meet, before considering Safety and Security needs, followed by Social needs, then Esteem needs and then lastly Self-actualisation needs. In my opinion Maslow`s theory is outdated for today`s work environment – Basic Physiological, Safety and Security needs must be provide by Employers by Law such as Health and Safety Acts. McClelland`s acquired-needs theory where needs such as achievement, affiliation or power are needs acquired over time and are based on an individual’s own experiences. I belief that this theory is far too general and pointless to use. McClelland is simply suggesting to look at each person as an individual. Vroom`s belief that the level motivation for a person depends on the level of reward for completing a task. Vroom`s theory is by far the most practical for considering someone’s motivation.

In the public service of Ireland, such as the Department of Revenue it can be difficult to motivate employees as there is no salary based bonuses based on the performance of the employee. One Revenue Officer audit is valued just the same as another Revenue Officer`s audit. Compare this to the Banking Sector of Ireland in business such as Ulster Bank where there is bonus based system by on staff`s performance throughout the year. Comparing Revenue and Ulster Bank using Vroom`s theory – Ulster Bank`s will having higher motivation to complete a good quality of work as there is a reward compared to no reward for Revenue staff. It is hard to say if there is any merit to McClelland’s theory as we don`t know the circumstances of each employees life in this example. Using Maslow`s theory to compare in this example is interesting as for Self-actualisation need Ulster Bank would have the ability to promote from within where as Revenue has little control over who it can promote as it is a Government Department so exam based evaluations are held to decide who to promote, again being good at your job plays little important for the Revenue in terms of promotion opportunities. So, again there should be higher motivation for employees in Ulster Bank.

From my experience it can be difficult to motivate staff if they are facing the same task everyday. I belief it is essential for a good leader to provide variety in an employee’s tasks and challenge them to something new on a regular basis.

Teamwork

In my opinion working within a team in my experience has allowed feel a sense of belonging as a team is reward as a whole rather than some employees individual achievements. Experienced team members are always will to help less experienced staff as in the long term it will reduce everyone’s work load for more team members to be competent at their job. In my opinion the best Leadership style for a team Manager is as Likert (1961) reported employee orientation Leadership – a Manager trusting an individual to complete the work and taking the time to consider the development needs of their employees. The employee orientation approach to leading a team is good for building team spirit as the Leader takes interest in every team member and not just the most senior member or best member of staff.

In my own working history, I am worked on the implementation of a new Case Management System in the Payroll Shared Service Centre (PSSC) (Payroll Department for the Civil Service in Ireland).  I had 2 years of experience using the system prior to its introduction in the PSSC. I was integral to the implementation of the system in the PSSC. This involves getting people to use a new system of which they are not familiar with. People are often set in their ways and need influencing to change how they do things.  If you can show people the benefit of a change and especially any possible time saving capabilities, they are a lot more open to the idea. I provide training for PSSC staff on the new system and am first point of contact for users if they are having issues or queries. During training I would always take comments and feedback on board.  This feedback was useful to help me to improve my training method. I have a good way with people and am able to put people at ease regardless of their status in the community or current stressful situation. I believe that everyone is entitled to respect and to have their issues addressed regardless of their status.

A Team can be effective for hiding the weakness of an individual and enhancing an individual`s strength. Training through a team can help individuals gain knowledge from their peers, team members can learn how to do a task that a team member has already experienced. Learning from peers can be a solution for employees that struggle with taking instructions from people in a position of authority. Putting an employee like this into a team can limited the negative impact they would bring to an organisation. The expression many hands make light work is the best summation for the benefit of working within a team to achieve a goal – a good leader will make sure that work needed to complete the goal is evenly divided out amongst the team and not let to just one or two conscientious employees, the leader can check on the status of the goal with regular team meetings.

Delivery and Submission 1x blog post (circa 500 words excluding diagrams + attached form)

Within the Civil Service in organisations such as The Department of Revenue the performance of the employee is monitor through PMDS (Performance Management and Development System) forms. The employee can set their goals for the year (with direction from their Manager) and the employee can request extra training at this time is he/she feels that they would not be able to complete their goals otherwise. When an employee is new to the organisation the PMDS well be reviewed every 4 months otherwise it will be review only twice a year. There is an incentive for the employee to successful complete their PMDS as doing so will move them onto the next point of their salary scale (Civil Service in Ireland have salary based on years service/successful PMDS completion ie person starting new to the service goes on point 1 of their salary scale). Equally if the goals of the PMDS are not meet the employee’s movement up the salary scale will be delay. If there are multiple issue of PDMS goals not being meet the organisation may look to end the employees contract or the movement of the employee to another team that might be better suited to their experience and skill set.

In my opinion the PMDS process is important and useful for motivating staff within the Department of Revenue. It avoids someone completely new coming into an organisation and getting the same salary as a senior employee with many years service – that employee will feel rewarded for staying with the organisation by progressing up the salary scale. The PMDS also gives the chance to employees to voice concerns over the possibility of not completing their goals for the year and look for more training to complete a goal or any other training that the organisation could provide to help aid in career development. The difficulty may arise where you have a long term employee and trying to find new and challenging goals for that employee to complete.

A review team would be a good system for appraisal and performance reviews within the Department of Revenue – look into random or set projects/tasks depending on the managers wishes. The team studies and evaluates all steps, decisions, actions and progress made right from the project/task inception stage. The team can call for formal meetings with project team members and other key project personnel – just also be done on an individual meeting basis depending on the wants of the manager. Written report is later submitted to the top management for their consideration and further actions, as may be desired by them. This would be a good system as the review could consist of senior team members with experience, new team members with new ideas and senior management to give the top management outlook. A review team would help create a better team working environment within the Department of Revenue rather than the PMDS that just looks at the successes and failures of an individual.