Management Case Week 3 (Essay Sample)

Management Case Week 3
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Management case week 3
Over the recent past, there has been an increase in the number of managers and leaders in organizations who are using unusual motivation strategies to their employees. Some of these motivation strategies give employees too much freedom and power to control the workplace (Birkinshaw, 2010). In some incidences, this freedom has been termed weired and unnecessary. However, many leaders and managers in favor of this strategy argue that they are just acting within the traditional motivational theories. One of the theories of motivation closely associated with these unusual motivational techniques is McGregor theory X and Y. Critically, these unusual motivation techniques are related to the McGregor theory X and Y (Aswathappa, & Reddy, (2009). In this theory, McGregor suggested that in any organizations, leaders are bound to take two types of management styles.
In the first style (Theory X) managers are mainly authoritative. In this case the manager views employees as people who dislike work. Additionally, they will try to avoid work as much as possible. Therefore, as manager and leaders, these employees must be coerced to do work in order to meet organizational objectives. Managers using these styles of leadership always direct their employees in every activity they do. In contrast, the second style of management is the participative style of leadership (Theory Y). In this case, employees are viewed as people who enjoy doing work. In this case employees will apply self-control to work towards the organization objectives. Employees do not need any form of direction and control since they know their roles and responsibility. In addition, employees are motivated to seek responsibility. It is from this participative management style that modern managers have developed unusual motivation techniques.
Managers have realized that employees no longer need to be coerced to do their work since employees who do not deliver in their roles will be fired in the end (Mathe, 2012). Additionally with increased competition for employment opportunities, modern employees will strive to work hard to keep their jobs. In order to motivate these employees, managers have decided to give employees unusual freedom that allows them to enjoy their duties. From this freedom accorded to employees, they can seek responsibility. In addition, the employees can use this freedom for creativity and innovation at their workplace. For instance, this concept has worked perfectly for Google internships that have been credited with the latest innovation and creative products at the workplace. The company has been able to outplay major rivals due to its competitive and motivated workforce.
One of the Maslow’s needs that these techniques address is the physiological need(Sadri & Bowen, 2012). Managers are now engaged in making the physiological conditions perfect for their employees. Employees need good working conditions that they feel comfortable working. For instance, the “googly” culture at Google Inc is meant to address the physiological needs. Additionally, the Maslow’s techniques are intended to address belonging needs. Each employee needs to feel loved. The “googly” culture at Google and the friendship nature is meant to address the belongingness needs. For employees to be motivated, they need to have friendship amongst themselves. Furthermore, they need to have love and affection between them and the organization leadership. Through creations of work groups that embrace friendship and family relationships, employees will gain motivation to work hard and meet organizations objectives.
The unusual motivation techniques have done a much in ensuring that employees esteem needs have been addressed (Sadri & Bowen, 2012). One of the needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the esteem needs. Maslow’s argued that for employees to be motivated they need self-esteem. They also need independence and some status in the organization and outside the organization. One of the companies that have succeeded in addressing this need is Google. Most of the Google interns have extraordinary status within and outside the organization. The independence given to these employees highly motivates them. Once employees have self-esteem, they will also have prestige. Working in big corporations like Google, Microsoft and Apple Inc requires someone to have some prestige. If this prestige is removed from employees, they will be demotivated. Therefore, to ensure that employees remain motivated, their prestige needs to be addressed.
One of the main advantages of the unusual motivation techniques is that they give manager and organization leaders an easy task to manage employees(Mathe,2012). New and unusual motivational techniques require less supervision. In this case, employees are viewed to like work; therefore, there is no need to maintain close supervision. Consequently, motivated employees have increa...