Question – 1
Identify the difference leadership styles that are available and discuss the impact that different leadership styles may have on motivation at the time of a change at Egg and Taylor Woodrow’s workforce.
Answer – 1
Companies are driven and guided by leaders that possess different leadership styles. Moreover, it also happens that the same leader under different situations or environmental factors may choose to follow different leadership styles. The five types of leadership styles that can be followed by any leader are –
- Laissez-Faire – A leader following this particular leadership style does not provide direct supervision to its staff members. In other words the staff members are left to perform on their own. This type of leadership style generally leads to poor performance of employees since they do not receive any guidance from their superiors. However, this type of leadership style may prove to be beneficial for the company if the staff members are highly qualified or trained and do not require any kind of supervision from the company’s end.
If this kind of leadership style is followed at the time of any kind of change at Egg and Taylor Woodrow, the workforce in these organizations would get demotivated. This is so because since they would find it very difficult to cope up with the changes as no supervision would be provided to them regarding the same by their leader or manager (who would expect them to learn and adapt to the same on their own).
- Autocratic – In this case the leader does not take any kind of recommendation from his staff members or does not allow them to participate in the decision making process. He or she takes a decision and asks the employees to simply follow it without fail. This type of leadership style benefits those employees that need close watch or direct supervision from their managers due to lack of skills, lack of self motivation or lack of experience.
If this kind of leadership style is followed at the time of any kind of change at Egg and Taylor Woodrow, the workforce in these organizations would get demotivated. This is so because at the time of change, the employees expect to be a part of the change process since it helps them to better understand the reasons behind these changes and therefore cope up with the same; whereas in case of autocratic style the manager would take the decision and just impose the same on his or her staff members without considering their views.
- Participative – This type of leadership style is also referred to as ‘Democratic style’. Here though the manager possesses the power to have the last say in the decision making process, but he or she encourages participation of his or her staff members in the decision making process. (James, 1986) This helps the management to motivate their staff members so that they deliver their 100 percent to the organization by feeling valued by the organization.
If this kind of leadership style is followed at the time of any kind of change at Egg and Taylor Woodrow, the workforce in these organizations would get motivated to adapt to these changes and work for betterment of the organization. This is so because the employees would feel empowered as well as valuable to the organization since they would be asked to be a part of the decision making team during the time of introduction of these changes.
- Transactional – In this type of leadership style, emphasis is given to ‘carrot - stick theory’. Here the manager decides some types of objectives for its employees and asks them to fulfil the same. Based on the performance of the latter, they are rewarded (in case of good performance) or some penalties (in case of bad performance) are imposed on them.
If this kind of leadership style is followed at the time of any kind of change at Egg and Taylor Woodrow’s, the workforce in these organizations would get demotivated since they would be simply given the objectives and would be asked to fulfil them without asking their opinions or views about the matter.
Transformational – In this case, communication between the leader and the employee is of utmost importance. Here the leader or manager is directly involved with his staff members in achievement of organizational goals. (E. Kevin, Julian, Elizabeth, Julie & Bernadette , 2003)
If this kind of leadership style is followed at the time of any kind of change at Egg and Taylor Woodrow’s, the workforce in these organizations would get motivated to deliver their best to the organization. This is so because direct communication between the manager and the employees would helps the manager to understand the goals or aspirations of his or her employees and the latter to understand what the company expects from him or her.
Question – 2
Compare the application of the different motivational theories adopted by the two organizations, Egg and Taylor Woodrow’s workforce.
Answer - 2
‘Egg’ gives more emphasis to McClelland, Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow and Herzberg’s theories of motivation.
| Theory | Application |
| McClelland’s theory of motivation | Achievement – The managers at Egg provide recognition for good work and provide constructive feedback so that the employee could improve his or her performance. Affiliation – the organization encourages more communication between the manager and the employees so that both can understand what each want (know your people program). Power – At Egg the employees have a say in the decision making process. Moreover, their personal goals and aspirations are given attention (Mark & Robert, 1998) |
| Elton Mayo’s theory of motivation | Due to programs like ‘know your people’, the management understands the expectations of their employees and vice versa. This helps in fulfilling the ‘Psychological contract’, which motivates the employees. |
| Maslow’s hierarchy of needs | Egg tries to fulfil all the basic five human needs – physiological need, safety need, social need, self esteem need and need for self actualization. By doing so it motivates its employee to put their best foot forward. |
| Herzberg’s two factor theory | The company offers a conducive work environment to its employees and pays salaries on time (hygiene factors). Moreover, it encourages its employees to innovate and come forward to voice their opinion. Also an employee’s good performance is linked to his or her promotion or other rewards. (Motivators) (Robin, 1982) |
‘Taylor Woodrow’ gives more emphasis to Elton Mayo and Abraham Maslow’s theories of motivation.
| Theory | Application |
| Elton Mayo’s theory of motivation | Taylor Woodrow tries to fulfil the ‘Psychological contract’ with its employees by encouraging communication between the managers and the employees so that they could understand expectations of each other. |
| Maslow’s hierarchy of needs | Taylor Woodrow tries to fulfil all the basic five human needs – physiological need, safety need, social need, self esteem need and need for self actualization. By doing so it motivates its employee to perform to the best of their capabilities (Kelly, Albert & Terrance, 2005) |
Question – 3
Evaluate how the management of both Egg has and Taylor Woodrow’s workforce applied these motivation theories and practices in the company and what benefits, if any, have the companies derived from their chosen motivation practices.
Answer - 3
Question – 4
Explain the nature of groups and group behaviour within Egg and Taylor Woodrow’s workforce.
Answer - 4
Both at Egg and Taylor Woodrow, group work is appreciated and encouraged. However, in order to motivate individual employees, performance of each and every individual is given attention. Moreover, training and development needs of each employee are accessed and appropriate actions are taken to provide the same. Furthermore, in both the organizations work allocation is done on basis of the skill sets an employee possesses (performance management system).
For example, at Taylor Woodrow, developing Brownfield sites is a very complex and important function. In order to gain competitive edge, selection of group members for this task is done very carefully. Each member having some specialized skill is chosen. Moreover, all the selected members pay attention to individual objectives as well as the team’s objectives.
In both the organizations, the managers assign group as well as individual goals to each and every employee. Depending on the level of achievement of these goals the managers then appraises all the employees. In cases where the manager realizes that there is some lag between the organizational expectations and employee output, he or she then trains or guides the employee appropriately (performance review and development process). Moreover, since prior to setting up of group and individual goals, the manager interacts with the employees to determine their personal objectives, career plans and aspirations and therefore frame the objectives in a way that the latter complements the former, the employee performs his or her level best. (Their superior performance is because of two reasons – one is that the manager sets objectives in a way that the employee is able to use and hone his or her present skill sets and second is that so much of attention and care from the organization’s end motivates the employee to have positive behaviour and attitude).
Question – 5
Identify with examples the various factors that could make a team effective and also those factors that may be likely to threat the success and effectiveness of a team. With reference to the case studies, discuss to what extent you believe that these factors have impacted on the effectiveness of the teamwork of the organizations.
Answer - 5
The various factors that determine the success or failure of a team are –
- Communication – Direct and clear communication is the key to success for any organization. Communication between the team leader and other members can help the leader to distribute roles and responsibilities according to the skill sets that each individual employee possesses. Moreover, communication makes it possible for the leader to set objectives for each individual employee in accordance to his or her career goals and aspirations.
Both Egg and Taylor Woodrow give emphasis to communication and encourages the managers as well as employees to interact more with each other.
- Defining roles and responsibilities – For smooth functioning of a team, it is very much necessary to assign roles and responsibilities so that there exists no confusion regarding the same.
Both managers at Egg and Taylor Woodrow make roles and responsibilities of each and every employee very clear.
- Complementary Skills – It is very much essential to choose team members with complementary skills. This enables the team to complete all kinds of tasks by making use of skill sets possessed by different people.
Both egg and Taylor Woodrow recruit and select people with different skill sets. Moreover, they trained their staff members so that they could develop new skills and use them to accomplish their goals.
- Conducive environment – An organization must provide conducive work environment and team environment to its employees.
Both the organization gave emphasis to healthy work environment. They provide all the needed assistance, training and development to its employees. Moreover, they provide their employees with all the possible human resources so that the latter work hard to exceed customer satisfaction.
- Innovation – When people come together in teams, brainstorming leads to generation of new ideas. Application of these ideas encourages the team as a whole to perform better.
Both Egg and Taylor Woodrow believe in innovation and encourage its employees to think about new ways of doing business or increasing performance.
- Individual performance – Team performance must be given importance, but output or performance of individual employee must also be given attention. This motivates the employee to deliver his or her best.
Both the organizations pay attention to team as well as individual goals as well as the performance; and promote or give rewards to its employees accordingly.
- Leadership – A successful team can be lead only by an effective leader. Absence of an effective leader causes confusion and decreases the productivity of individuals as well as team as a whole.
Both the organizations follow a transformational leadership style so that the employees feel empowered. Moreover, such a type of leader apart from motivating the team, guides them so that it helps in their professional as well as personal growth (Nurdan, 2003)
Question – 6
Explain the role of technology in the success of a business that you know. In view of your argument, evaluate the impact of technology on the performance of Egg’s and Taylor Woodrow’s company teams and groups and the company’s overall performance.
Answer- 6
Technology forms the basis of success of most of the organizations today. It has made all the processes simpler, easier as well as cost effective. Moreover, it has helped companies to develop new products (product development), find new markets for your products (market development), retain customers (by engaging in e - customer relationship), decrease employee turnover (by offering them choice of work at home and other technology driven services), etc.
For example, let us consider the retail business. Earlier, people used to visit markets and go from shop to shop to purchase products of their choice but today with one mouse click they can view the various product options available to them on various websites (like jabong .com, myntra .com, etc) and purchase the same sitting at home. It not only saves time but saves cost too. Moreover, even the customers living in areas away from the main cities can now shop online and get products delivered at their place (market development). Technology has therefore revolutionized the retail sector (Pasi, 2005)
Another example would be e – customer relationship. Most of the companies or banks by making use of phone or internet technology have got closer to their customers. They have been able to do so by sending regular updates or mails and message about the various schemes/ offers as well as thank you mails to the customers.
Egg is a pure online bank that provides all the banking facilities to its customers through internet. In other words the basis of foundation of Egg is advanced technology. It derives all its profits as well as its identity from technology.
In addition to this, Taylor Woodrow provides its customers with house construction solutions and also works for urban regeneration and Brownfield development. It has a dedicated team for each service. These teams make use of latest technology to perform their operations and achieve customer satisfaction. Moreover, use of technology has also enabled the organization to have a competitive edge over other companies in the same industry. For example, it has a specialized team that works for Brownfield development. The team helps the organization to perform better from other companies by adopting advanced technology to make available land or site for the purpose of construction.
References
Lewis D. Solomon, (1996) "Perspectives on Human Nature and Their Implications for Business Organizations", Humanomics, Vol. 12 Iss: 1, pp.8 – 52 Linjuan Rita Men, Don W. Stacks, (2013) "The impact of leadership style and employee empowerment on perceived organizational reputation", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 17 Iss: 2, pp.171 – 192 Mark A. Tietjen, Robert M. Myers, (1998) "Motivation and job satisfaction", Management Decision, Vol. 36 Iss: 4, pp.226 - 231 Nurdan Özaralli, (2003) "Effects of transformational leadership on empowerment and team effectiveness", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 24 Iss: 6, pp.335 – 344 Pasi Pyöriä, (2005) "Information technology, human relations and knowledge work teams", Team Performance Management, Vol. 11 Iss: 3/4, pp.104 – 112 ROBIN W. HUNTER, (1982) "ADMINISTRATIVE STYLE AND STAFF MORALE", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 20 Iss: 1, pp.88 - 97 Siew Kim Jean Lee, Kelvin Yu, (2004) "Corporate culture and organizational performance", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 19 Iss: 4, pp.340 - 359
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