care, educational, government and non-profit organizations.
2. Employee Recognition Programs (cfr. Reinforcement Theory)
Consistent with reinforcement theory, rewarding a behaviour with
recognition immediately following that behaviour is likely to encourage its
repetition. For example: personally congratulating an employee, or sending
a letter or an e-mail, having a celebration because of good achievement, or
publicly recognizing, such as organizing a prize “Best Employee of the
Month” (he/she then gets a plaque on the wall). These programs are widely
used because it costs no money and according to research bears effective.
3. Employee Involvement Programs (cfr. Theory X and Theory Y, Two-Factor
Theory, Hierarchy of Needs Theory & ERG Theory):
The idea here is that by involving workers in those decisions that affect
them and by increasing their autonomy and control over their work lives,
employees will become more motivated, more committed to the organization,
more productive, and more satisfied with their jobs. Examples:
- participative management: subordinates share a significant
degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.
- representative participation: rather than participate directly
in decisions, workers are represented by a small group of
employees who actually participate
- quality circles: a work group of 8 to 10 employees and
supervisors meet regularly to discuss their quality problems,
investigate causes, recommend solutions, and take corrective
actions.
- employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs): these are company-
established benefit plans in which employees acquire stock as
part of their benefits.
4. Variable Pay Programs (cfr. Expectancy Theory):
Here a portion of an employee’s pay is based on some individual and/or
organizational measure of performance. Examples:
- Piece-rate pay plans: you are paid a fixed sum for each unit of
production completed.
- Bonuses: extra payment because of certain achievement.
- Profit-sharing plans: compensations based on some established
formula designed around a company’s profitability (direct cash
outlays or stock options).
- gainsharing: an incentive plan in which improvements in group
productivity determine the total amount of money that is
allocated.
5. Skill Based Pay Plans (cfr. ERG Theory, Reinforcement Theory, Equity
Theory):
These plans set pay levels on the basis of how many skills employees have
or how many jobs they can do. For example, if you are a machine operator in
a certain company, you earn 14$/hour, but because of the skill based pay
plan, you can earn up to a 10 percent premium if you broaden your skills to
for example material accounting. Several studies have confirmed that skill
based pay generally leads to higher performance and satisfaction. These
plans are expanding and already widely used with success.
6. Flexible Benefits (cfr. Expectancy Theory):
These allow employees to pick and choose from among a menu of benefit
options that exceeds the traditional benefit programs. The options might
include hearing, dental and eye coverage; life insurance; extended vacation
time; …. This way the different needs of the employees can be met. The
major theories and their applications were provided; we want to conclude
here with some general guidelines:
Recognize Individual Differences
Use Goals and Feedback
Allow Employees to Participate in Decisions that Affect
Them
Link Rewards to Performance
Check the System for Equity
The conclusion then is that нf you have the skill as a manager to tailor
the perfect motivation method for each of your employees, you will be more
effective.
2 Communication skills
With Rees (1991, p. 159), we can say that this characteristic is probably
the most important of all the characteristics an effective manager needs to
possess. Everything a manager does involves communication, his verbal and
nonverbal behaviour. Communication between managers and employees is
important in the sense that it provides the information necessary to get
work done effectively and efficient in organizations. Effective
communication is the critical factor that moves a team toward a resolution
or consensus (“How to be an effective manager”, 2000, p. 14).
Robbins & Coulter provide us with the following communication model (see
attachment 1). As we can notice by looking at this model, there are seven
factors involved in communication: (1) the communication source, (2)
encoding, (3) the message, (4) the channel, (5) decoding, (6) the receiver
and (7) feedback. The definition of communication is then “the transfer and
understanding of meaning” (Robbins & Coulter, 2002, p. 282). This means
that (1) the message has to reach the receiver ( for example a speaker who
isn’t heard does not communicate) and (2), more important, the message has
also to be understood in the way it was meant by the sender. Interesting to
note is that communication can be affected by noise, by which we mean any
disturbance that interferes with the transmission, receipt or feedback of a
message, for example a phone ringing in the background.
Robbins and Coulter (2002, pp. 288-291) distinguish 7 different barriers to
effective communication. These are (Robbins & Coulter, 2002, pp. 288-291):
1. Filtering: this is the deliberate manipulation of information to
make it appear more favorable to the receiver. For example when a
manager tells his boss what his boss wants to hear.
2. Selective perception: when people selectively interpret what they
see or hear on the basis of their interests, background, experience
and attitudes. For example an employment interviewer who expects a
female job applicant to put her family ahead of her career is
likely to see that in female applicants, regardless of the fact
that it is true or not.
3. Emotions: how a receiver feels when a message is received
influences how he or she interprets it.
4. Information overload: when the information we have to work with
exceeds our processing capacity. For example tons of e-mails. You
are bound to select and this way information gets lost.
5. Defensiveness: when individuals interpret another’s message as
threatening, they often respond in ways that hinder effective
communication.
6. Language: words mean different things to different people. Age,
education and cultural background are three of the more obvious
variables that influence the language a person uses and the
definitions he or she gives to words. The use of jargon, a
specialized terminology or technical language that members of a
group use to communicate among themselves, can be a barrier to
effective communication.
7. National culture: cultural differences and consequently different
values (cfr. the problems of intercultural communication).[39]
To these we can also add gender differences[40], status differences (for
example boss vs. subordinate) and interference of nonverbal communication
factors (for example smell as a personal physical characteristic).
Now what can a manager do to overcome these and as such be effective in his
communication? If we know that an average manager spends 80% of his or her
time communicating in one form or another (10% writing, 15% reading, 25%
listening and 30% speaking), communication is affecting a company in every
possible way (“How to be an effective manager”, 2000, p. 14). Therefore
effective communication is of extreme importance.
Robbins (2001, pp. 302-304) mentions 8 rules by which the barriers can be
bridged:
1. Use feedback: question the receiver to know if he understood the
message in the way it was intended.
2. Simplify language: choose words and structure your messages in ways
that will make those messages clear and understandable to the
receiver.
3. Listen actively: this means an active search for meaning, in
opposite to passively hearing
4. Contrain emotions: when emotionally upset, refrain from
communication until u have regained composure.
5. Watch nonverbal cues: to ensure that the receiver conveys the
desired message.
6. Empathize with others: put yourself in the shoes of your listeners.
This way you’re more likely to see things from their perspective.
Then you can choose the proper channel and the right words to
transfer your message (cfr. infra).
7. Use multiple channels: this increases clarity because (1) it
stimulates different senses and (2) it takes into account that
people have different abilities to absorb communication.
8. Match your words and actions: actions speak louder than words. When
nonverbal messages contradict official messages as conveyed in
formal communications, people become confused and the official
message loses its focus.
9. Tailor the message to the audience: different people in the
organization have different information needs. Individuals in
