NOTES ON MANAGEMENT

PART 4 of 5 PARTS

THE BEHAVIORAL SCHOOL OF

MANAGEMENT

Musbri Mohamed
DIL; ADIL ( ITM )
MBL ( UKM )

1
Interpersonal and Organizational
Communication

A tough lesson in life that one has to

learn is that not everybody wishes
you well. The truth is we are all
caught in a great economic system
that is heartless.

2
Communication process entails four steps:
attention, understanding, acceptance and action.

Implementation of the process occurs in two

basic channels: the formal and the informal.
The astute manager uses both to advantage,
keeping in mind that there tends to be an
overemphasis on downward communication and an
underemphasis on upward. This is unfortunate, for
without some form of upward communication the
manager suffers from a lack of feedback. Many
managers overlook the need for this feedback,
tending to follow the old conveyor theory of
communication. They send their subordinates a
message and expect them to act accordingly.
However, communication does not work that way.

3
People do not always interpret messages in the same
way. There are many reasons for this, and all constitute
barriers to effective communication. Some of the more
important are perception, language, abstractions,
inference, status and resistance to change. In order to
overcome these barriers, the manager must take steps
to establish lines of feedback. Some of the more
effective techniques are sensitivity, understandable,
repetitive language, credibility, and the avoidance of
bad listening habits and adherence to the
commandments of good communication. Although
many people may think these ideas appear obvious, it
is really quite difficult to practice an adherence to
them.

4
Modern Motivation Theory

The less important you are in the table of

organization, the more you’ll be missed if you
don’t turn up for work.

This theory focuses on the declining worker

motivation. Then the relationship between needs and
behavior was shown through the use of Maslow’s
hierarchy. These ideas were then refined and applied to
the workplace through Herzberg’s model. Both theories
provide important insights into workers’ behavior,
because they stress the importance of examining the
causes of human activity and partly answer the
question of what specific things motivate people.

5
Managers must also be
concerned with explaining how
behavior is initiated, directed,
sustained or halted. To do this
they must understand process
theories. There are three of
these theories: Vroom’s
expectancy-valence theory,
Porter and Lawler’s motivation
model and equity or social
comparison theory. All three
place great emphasis on
individual motivation.

6
In the past years, increased attention has
been given to these process theories
because of their value in applying general
motivation theory to specific situations.
Currently there is interest in the
formulation of a contingency theory of
motivation that would integrate content
and process ideas.

7
Yet whatever approach managers use,
one question must remain foremost –
what will motivate the workers to
attain organizational objectives?
When this question is answered,
managers are enabled to examine the
area of leadership. When people who
manage know what will motivate the
people they manage, they can focus
attention on leading them.

8
 Leadership Effectiveness

If you try to cleanse others, you

will waste away in the process,
like soap.

9
Leadership is the process of influencing
people to direct their efforts toward the
attainment of some particular goals.

What makes an individual an effective leader?

Some people feel the answer rests with
personal traits and, to some degree, they are
right. However, situational theory is more
commonly accepted today that is, some
leadership styles are more effective than others
are; “ best “ depends on the situation.

10
One way of studying leadership is by placing the
elements of leadership on a continuum. Rensis
Likert’s research, for example, shows that an
employee-centered manager is more effective
than a job-centered manager is. But in recent
years, scholars and practitioners alike have found
a two-dimensional model more realistic, since it
sidesteps an either-or-approach and allows
consideration of two factors. The Ohio State
leadership research and the Blake-Mouton grid
are both illustrations of the two-dimensional
approach.

11
The most widely accepted approach now is
probably Fred Fiedler’s contingency model,
which places prime emphasis on three major
situational variables: leader-member relations,
task structure and position power. Fiedler’s model
is important because it stresses effectiveness,
illustrates that no leadership style is best and
encourages management to match the leader with
the situation. More recently, Robert House has
postulated the path-goal theory. Both of these
theories emphasize the importance of the adaptive
leader who can rise to the demands of the
situation.

12
New dimensions in leadership inquiry;
particular attention was given to the
declining work ethic, the importance of
matching the leader and the strategy and
furthermore the role of corporate culture.
All three are of importance in the study of
leadership effectiveness. A related area is
that of human resources development.

13
Human Resource Development

Examine the latest tools and

techniques for managing the firm’s
human assets. Human resource start
with staffing process wherein human
resource development efforts first
begin.

14
Human resource development programs
currently being used in modern organizations
include Job enrichment .It is currently
employed in a number of firms including AT &
T, General Motor and Volvo. In essence, Job
enrichment places primary emphasis on
Herzberg’s motivators: advancement, growth
and responsibility. Yet despite wide
acceptance, the technique has a number of
vociferous critics who claim that it does not
always work.

15
Three of the primary reasons cited are that
some workers do not find satisfaction in the
work place; some people prefer boring,
unpleasant jobs with good social interaction to
enriched jobs that reduce the opportunity for
such interaction; and some workers react to
the technique with feelings of inadequacy and
fears of failure.

16
One of the primary ways of
redesigning jobs is by building core
job dimensions into them. It has been
found that these dimensions are
frequently correlated with such
outcomes as high work motivation,
high quality performance, high
satisfaction, low turnover and low
absenteeism.

17
Another technique that has also gained a great deal of
popularity because of its potential for helping the
manager carry out decision-making, communication
and control functions is management by
objectives. In essence, MBO entails a meeting of
superior and subordinate for deciding:
what the subordinate will do;
length of time needed; and
how performance will be evaluated.

18
In addition to its participative decision-
making feature, subordinates like the
technique because it tells them what is
expected of them, thereby reducing
ambiguity and anxiety.

19
Sensitivity training is designed to make
managers more aware of their own actions
and their effects on others, in addition to
obtaining better insight into what makes
subordinates tick. Another approach, which
is less emotive but just as valuable to
managers who need help communicating
with their people is transactional analysis.

20
The human resources accounting suggest that the
company evaluates its personnel and that this
evaluation be reflected in the firm’s financial
statements. Well-trained and well-motivated people
are an asset. Another approach is to evaluate
personnel on a periodic basis by measuring causal,
intervening and end-result variables. This technique
gives management a reading on the kind of
performance it can expect from its people in the near
future.

Thank you.

21