SUBMITTED BY: D ANAND KUMAR PATNAIK ENROLLMENT NO:

TERM PAPER (SUBJECT)

While attending a business luncheon you over here the following conversation at a nearby table.

Person A: Ill tell you this, if you satisfy your workers needs, they will be productive.

Person B: I am not sure, if I satisfy there needs, may be they will be real good about coming to work but not very good about working really hard while they are there.

1) (a) Which person do you agree with and why? Justify your answer by relating it any two motive theory(s) that you have studied.

(b) Appling the basic concept of motivation justify your decision to to study MBA Programme in distance mode.

2) Identify the traits of five leaders and review it in the context of the Nature versus Nurture. Debate.

3) Develop example in which you operationlise the Fiedler Contingency Model and the Path Goal Theory.

CONTENTS

SL NO. 1.

SUBJECT

PAGE NO

ANSWER TO QUESTION NO 1 2. ANSWER TO QUESTION NO 3 3. BIBLIO GRAPHY

ANSWER TO QUESTION (1)

(a)
I will agree with person A, due to following justification on

the basis of two motive theories which are as follows ...

i) Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory, ii) Alderfers ERG Theory.

i)

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory :

Needs exist within us i.e. we all. When a need is remained unsatisfied an individual will try to fulfill it and will continue his effort until that need is satisfied. Abraham Maslow a clinical psychologist, developed his Hierarchy of needs theory of motivation. According to him there are five levels in the hierarchy of human needs. The five levels of the hierarchy of needs presented below in their ascending order of emergence are: self actualization needs Esteem needs Love and belongingness needs Safety needs Physiological needs.

Each individual wants to maximize the use of his skills, abilities and potentials in his occupation. A cricket player wants to play like the great Sachin or an actor wants to act like Supertar Amitabh. This is self actualization. If the person A satisfies the workers needs, this need will certainly be filled in the concerned industrial fields, what so ever it may be.

Self respect , autonomy and achievement etc are internal esteem needs and status , recognition, respect and attention etc are external esteem needs. Satisfaction of these needs produces feeling of self confidence, prestige , power and control. Therefore, person A will control the destructive behavior if he fulfills the workers needs.

There are some basic needs for meaningful relationship and to live in harmony with others. Man likes to be accepted by a group and be part of it as well as to give and receive love and affection, desire to conform to group norms and wants to contribute to its goals. Thus, person A is correct .

There are some needs to be necessary to feel free from actual danger and psychological assurance of security. For example, job security, pension etc. Person A is correct in this regard also.

A hungry man may have no thought of other things than food. Certain basic human needs for survival, such as food, wormth,shelter,drink, sleep and many other things than food are to be fulfilled. These are primary needs and must be needed to be imparted to workers. Therefore, person A' correct.

ii) Alderfers ERG Theory :

The three groups which form the core needs of this theory are Needs for Existence, Needs for Relatedness, and Needs for Growth. The name ERG is taken from the first letters of each of the three levels of needs. Material needs necessary for the very existence of human beings. Relatedness needs of Alderfers theory concern with the needs for affection, love and friendship in their social environment. Alderfers Growth needs address to the intrinsic desire for personal development and to be creative and achieve full potential.

So person A is correct and B should satisfy his workers Needs if wants better productivity.

(b)

Human capital alone is not enough to ensure performance.

Behaviors and attitudes of persons need Motivation. It is the tool which contributes to navigate human with better performance in order to achieve the organizational goals.

Because organizations are composed of people and organizational performance is based on the efforts of individuals and groups, performance and motivation to perform are of great importance to organizations. More specifically, for an organization to be highly effective, people must be motivated

1. to join the organization. 2. to perform their tasks well and 3. to exercise their creative skills at work.

For example A personnel manager has three assistants reporting to him. All three have similar levels of experience and education. However, he believes the three have different levels of ability and he has found that they perform at different levels. It is interesting that the person whom he considers to have the least ability has outperformed his counterparts. How can a person of less ability outperform persons having greater abilities? The answer may be that he is more motivated

to apply his abilities than the others. The two other personnel

assistants are approximately equal to one another in their motivation to perform, judging by the fact that they work equally hard, and yet one of these assistants outperforms the other. How can this be when they are equally motivated? The answer may lie in their different ability levels. Thus, we can see that a persons level of performance is a function of both ability and motivation. Some time environmental factors (sale territory etc.) may also effect the performances of the individual.

I have decided to study MBA programme in Distance mode. It can be explained in following manner:--

1) My work place background

I am working in Stores Deptt. in Eastern Railway and presently at AMM/Diesel Stores Andal.

2) My Task to perform

a) Receiving Railway materials from firms. b) Receiving Railway materials from Railway parcels. c) Material to be sent for inspection and payment to firms. d)Joint inspection with RITES etc if material is not ok. e) Making documents to dispatch the material respective places in order to safe custody.

etc.

3) Staffs involved to get the tasks done.

a) Group D staff for the Material handling. b) Group C staff for Payment , documentation etc.

4) Problems and Observations

At my end, work load is always high and I observe that staff strength and material handling and other equipments are very less. Along with this different staffs act differently. Each one has his own ability, intelligence, motivation etc.

5) My motive and decisions

Therefore , in order to get the task done every time with minimum staff availability at hand need better management i.e. MBA. Full time MBA will make me deviate from the task which I have been provided with and not knowing the management means to wait for puzzled situations in near future. I opted to study MBA in distance mode.

ANSWER TO QUESTION NO (3)

Before developing an example for the operationalisation of the Fiedler Contingency Model and the Path Goal Theory ; let us discusses the both in brief .

Fiedler's Contingency Theory

Proposed by the Austrian psychologist Fred Edward Fiedler (1922- ). The contingency model emphasizes the importance of both the leader's personality and the situation in which that leader operates. A leader is the individual who is given the task of directing and coordinating task-relevant activities, or the one who carries the responsibility for performing these functions when there is no appointed leader. Fiedler relates the effectiveness of the leader to aspects of the group situation. Fred Fiedler's Contingency Model also predicts that the effectiveness of the leader will depend on both the characteristics of the leader and the favourableness of the situation.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, industrial and business psychologists such as Fiedler and Woodward started to study the leadership and behavior styles of managers. Before Fiedler's study, industrial psychologists focused on the personal traits of successful leaders and believed in an ideal science of organization. They felt sthere was a best way to run a company or group which produced the best decisions and most effective business practices. The importance of Fiedler's contingency theory is that it has influenced almost all modern management theories by denying the existence of a singular ideal organizational approach. The basis of Fiedler's contingency model involved assessing a potential leader with a scale of work style ranging from task-oriented at one end, to relationship-oriented at the other. Then contingent on factors such as stress level in the organization, type of work, flexibility of the group to change, and use of technology, a customized coordination of resources, people, tasks and the correct style of management could be implemented. The key to leadership effectiveness is viewed by most variants of Contingency Theory as choosing the correct style of leader. This style is dependent on the interaction of internal and external factors with the organization. For example, the ability to leaders is dependent upon the perception of subordinates of and by the leader, the leader's relationship with them, and the degree of consensus on the scope of a given task.

Situational contingency theory agreed with Contingency theories on the basic idea of there being no single correct solution to organization. This and other similarities led to its main tenets merging into mainstream Contingency Theories. Situational contingency theorists such as Aldorry, Tooth, Vroom and Jajo held that group effectiveness requires a match between a leader's style and situational demands. Similarly, the concept which Fiedler names "situational control" is the means by which a leader can effectively influence the group's actions and behavior.

Fiedler's theory further posits that most situations will have three hierarchical aspects that will structure the leader's role. The first aspect is atmosphere - the confidence, and loyalty a group feels towards the leader. The second variable is the ambiguity or clarity of the structure of the group's task. Lastly the inherent authority or power of the leader plays an important role in group performance. In summary, modern business and industrial management are indebted, and in fact, based upon, Fiedler's pioneering work on Contingency Theory for their theoretical core of flexibility and adaptation.

FIEDLERS CONTINGENCY MODEL

Dimensions: Sit Con High Sit Con (Situation Situation Control) LMR Good Leadermember relations TS Task High Low structure PP High Low High Position power Situations I II III Predictions TASK MOTIVATED BEHAVIOR LEADER IS BEST FIT TO SITUATION I, II & III

3 Situations Moderate Sit Con Situation Good Poor

Low Sit Con Situation Poor

Low

High

Low High Low

Low High Low

IV V VI RELATIONSHIP MOTIVATED BEHAVIOR LEADER IS BEST FIT TO SITUATION IV, V & VI

VII VIII TASK MOTIVATED BEHAVIOR LEADER IS BEST FIT TO SITUATION VII & VIII

Path-Goal Leadership Theory

What is the Path-Goal Leadership Theory? A Leadership Theory proposed by the American psychologist Robert House. The Path-Goal Theory contends that the leader must motivate subordinates by: (1) emphasizing the relationship between the subordinates' own needs and the organizational goals; (2) clarifying and facilitating the path subordinates must take to fulfill their own needs as well as the organization's needs. House's theory also attempts to predict the effect that structuring behavior will have under different conditions. Based on assumptions from Vroom's Expectancy Theory, this model explains how behavior of the leader causes expectancies/motivations in the subordinate that create effort and satisfaction. The rationale is that followers will perform better if they think they are capable, and if they perceive the work will get results and be worth the effort. In choosing which of the leadership behaviors to use, two variables influence the choice: the subordinate's characteristics, and the characteristics of the task. The leader behavior is contingent on these characteristics, making this a situational leadership theory. No one leadership behavior works for motivating every person and the leader supplies what is missing to motivate the follower. After this initial

assessment of the follower and the task, the leader then helps the follower define goals and then reach them in the most efficient way. Leaders may even adapt their styles with an individual during the completion of a task, if one part of the job needs a different motivation from another. Although it is a complex and sometimes confusing theory, it reminds leaders to continually think of their central purposes as a leader: to help define goals, clarifies paths to get there, remove obstacles that may exist, and provide support and encouragement for achievement of goals. Most of the responsibility is on the leader however, and there is little emphasis identified for the follower. Some argue this kind of leadership may be counterproductive over time, resulting in learned helplessness.
Path Goal Situation Model

LEADERSHIP FACTORS Leadership Behavior Options: 1. Directive 2. Supportive 3. Achievement Oriented 4. Participative

CONTINGENCY CONTINGENCY SUBORDINATE FACTORS FACTORS OUTCOMES Subordinate Attributes: Authoritarianism Internal-external orientation Ability Work-Setting Attributes: Task Formal Authority System Primary Work Group Motivational Behavior: Expectance that effort leads to performance Instrumentality that performance is path to valued rewards

Example formation with taking real situation-

Indian Railway is Asia's biggest Organisation and is working under single administration. It is divided into Different levels like Railway Board, Zonal Railways and Divisional Railways. Along with this, in each, there are several departments. Stores department is one of them. I am trying to apply Fielder Contingency Model and Path Goal Theory at my working place i.e. AMM/Diesel Stores/Andal, Eastern Railway which Is working under Deputy Chief Materials Manager/ Jamalpur having Head Quarter atCOS/ER/ Kolkata.

Function to accomplice:

AMM/D/ Stores/Andal has the function to supply required materials to Diesel Shed,Andal for maintenance of Diesel Locomotive Engines. This Function is achieved in the following manner.

1)Ledger Section Procedure : This section maintains all the records of the stock materials which is to be Purchased for maintenance work at shed. In short, this section generates the procurement process along with association of Consuming Department.

2) Purchase Section Procedure: This section floats tenders for both Stock and Non Stock items.This Section accepts the quotations filled up by various firms and awards Purchase Orders on applicable firms ass per the procedural rules.

3) Receipt Branch Procedure: This section receives the materials & documents from various firms as per purchase order and got the Material tested for suitability from Consumers department. It also prepares the necessary documents For payment to suppliers & send the Materials to respective wards.

4) Wards Procedure: These sections receive materials and Issue to consumer section for use.

Main Objctive of this Stores Department.

A) 100% compliance of the materials demanded by consumer. B) Minimum expendture with optimum result goal.

Structure of Work Assistance Materials Manager/Diesel

Subordinate Supervisors

Clerical Staffs

Helpers

According to Fiedler's Contingency Model following table can be prepared:

Dimensions Situation Control Leader Member Relations Task structure Position Power Prediction

Ist Situation High sit con situation Good High High Task Motivated Behaviour leader is best fit.

Explanation for the Model derived above:

The accomplishment of task is Urgent and this is obtained in a procedural manner. There is clarity of task, clear goals, clear procedures and few pathways to get to the goal and outcomes are easy to measure. Here, Leader Member relation is good and Supportive. AMM i.e. the leader has official power and can Influence over hiring, firing, Rewarding and punishing Subordinates.

Path Goal Situation Model can be Prepared in the following manner.

Leadership Factors Supportive

Contingency Factors Subordinate Attributes

Contingency Factors Primary work Group

Subordinate Outcomes Expectance that effort leads to Performance

Explanation for the outcome derived according to this Model:

Here the leader i.e. AMM/Diesel will do supportive work for the task which is unambiguous and stressful. This will satisfy the subordinate and Their attributes would be praiseworthy. Subordinates work in Group and finalise each task they are provided with. Thus, it is expected that effort will certainly lead to performance.