[SUPERVIION AND MANAGEMET 1]

Knowledge of the various theories of motivation can help a supervisor fulfil his or her duties
effectively and efficiently as the main thread or the background to the theories are; people are
motivated for various reasons.
Carl Nicholas Supervisory and Management Page |1

Assignment: How can a supervisor use his/her knowledge of the theories of motivation to
improve worker performance and promote commitment to the organization?

Traditionally the role of the supervisor is complex and difficult one can even express
it as ambiguous; a supervisor is one who must ensure that the job gets done, he or she must
fulfil the goal, objectives and mission of the organization and manage to maintain various
responsibilities to the employees. He or she must ensure that productivity is to a specific
standard, production is in a specific time frame whilst considering and maintaining
employees security and occupational health and safety.
In my opinion the role of a supervisor is similar to that of a manager except for the
target of their activities. They both have responsibilities within the organization: The
manager is responsible for people and things such as the company itself, while the supervisor
is responsible for people and their actions. Another way to look at this is that managers are
responsible for the peoples products (what), and supervisors are responsible for the peoples
processes (how). Lehman, (2007).
According to MSG online there are some key supervisory roles/ function such as
planning, managing, guiding and leading, mediating, inspecting and counselling. The
supervisor is a part of the management team and he holds the designation of first line
managers. He or she is the person who has to perform the many functions which helps in
achieving productivity. Therefore, a supervisor can be called as the only manager who has an
important role at execution level. (MSG online) A supervisor actually should be called as a
manager or operative manager, since his or her primary job is to manage the workers at
operative level of management.
As a Planner - A supervisor has to plan the daily work schedules in the factory. At
the same time he has to divide the work to various workers according to their abilities.
As a Manager - It is righty said that a supervisor is a part of the management team of an
enterprise. He is, in fact, an operative manager.
As a Guide and Leader, a factory supervisor leads the workers by guiding them the way of
perform their daily tasks. In fact, he plays a role of an inspirer by telling them.
As a Mediator, a Supervisor is called a linking pin between management and workers.
He is the spokesperson of management as well as worker.
As an Inspector, an important role of supervisor is to enforce discipline in the factory.
For this, the work includes checking progress of work against the time schedule, recording
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the work performances at regular intervals and reporting the deviations if any from those. He
can also frame rules and regulations which have to be followed by workers during their work.
As a Counsellor, a supervisor plays the role of a counsellor to the workers problem.
He has to perform this role in order to build good relations and co-operation from workers.
This can be done not only by listening to the grievances but also handling the grievances and
satisfying the workers. Therefore, we can say that effective and efficient supervision helps in
serving better work performance, building good human relations, creating a congenial and co-
operative environment. This all helps in increasing productivity and also maintain the
organizational goal.
Knowledge of the various theories of motivation can help a supervisor fulfil his or her
duties effectively and efficiently as the main thread or the background to the theories are;
people are motivated for various reasons. This is notwithstanding that the supervisor
demonstrates a leadership style that captivates the respect and dedication of the employees.
Business dictionary online defines motivation as an internal and external factors that
stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role
or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal. Motivation results from the interaction of
both conscious and unconscious factors such as the (1) intensity of desire or need, (2)
incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expectations of the individual and of his or her
peers. These factors are the reasons one has for behaving a certain way.
There are two types of motivation, Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation. It's important to
understand that we are not all the same; thus effectively motivating employees require that
you gain an understanding of the different types of motivation. Such an understanding will
enable one to better categorize the team members and apply the appropriate type of
motivation. One will find each member different and each member's motivational needs will
be varied as well. Some people respond best to intrinsic which means "from within" and will
meet any obligation of an area of their passion. Quite the reverse, others will respond better to
extrinsic motivation which, in their world, provides that difficult tasks can be dealt with
provided there is a reward upon completion of that task. Become an expert in determining
which type will work best with which team members.
Intrinsic motivation means that the individual's motivational stimuli are coming from
within. The individual has the desire to perform a specific task, because its results are in
accordance with his belief system or fulfils a desire and therefore importance is attached to it.
Peoples deep-rooted desires have the highest motivational power. For example:
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Acceptance: We all need to feel that we, as well as our decisions, are accepted by our co-
workers.
Curiosity: We all have the desire to be in the know.
Honour: We all need to respect the rules and to be ethical.
Independence: We all need to feel we are unique.
Order: We all need to be organized.
Power: We all have the desire to be able to have influence.
Social contact: We all need to have some social interactions.
Social Status: We all have the desire to feel important. (Leadership-Cenral.com)
Extrinsic motivation means that the individual's motivational stimuli are coming from
outside. In other words, our desires to perform a task are controlled by an outside source.
Note that even though the stimuli are coming from outside, the result of performing the task
will still be rewarding for the individual performing the task.
Extrinsic motivation is external in nature. The most well-known and the most debated
motivation is money. Below are some other examples:
Employee of the month award
Benefit package
Bonuses
Organized activities
When looked at closely, one can see the relationship of types of motivation and
Maslows hierarchy of needs. Once the needs are met there will be satisfaction. Maslows
theory states that people have a pyramid hierarchy of needs that they will satisfy from bottom
to top. There are deficiency needs, that will stifle any other movement if they are not
satisfied, and growth needs, that can be progressively satisfied once the basics have been
covered.
Fredrick Herzberg 1923-2000, clinical psychologist and pioneer of job enrichment is
regarded as one of the great original thinkers in management and motivational theory.
Herzbergs theory postulates that, the factors which motivate people at work are different to
and not simply the opposite of the factors which cause dissatisfaction. Eyre (2003). That
explained would be the factors involved in doing the job are the job satisfiers and the factors
which define the job context are the job dissatisfiers. Factors of satisfaction are for example,
achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth. Factors
of dissatisfaction are: company policies, supervision, relationship with supervisor and peers,
work conditions, salary, status and security. Eyre (2003).
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The conclusion he drew is that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are not
opposites. The opposite of Satisfaction is No Satisfaction. The opposite
of Dissatisfaction is No Dissatisfaction. That is to say remedying the causes of
dissatisfaction will not create satisfaction. Nor will adding the factors of job satisfaction
eliminate job dissatisfaction. If you have a hostile work environment, giving someone a
promotion will not make him or her satisfied. If you create a healthy work environment but
do not provide members of your team with any of the satisfaction factors, the work they're
doing will still not be satisfying.
The characteristics associated with job dissatisfaction are called hygiene factors and
when these have been adequately addressed, people will not be dissatisfied nor will they be
satisfied. If you want to motivate your team, you then have to focus on satisfaction factors
like achievement, recognition and responsibility.
In the year 2012 the company that I work with experienced for the first time an
industrial action, this issues that caused this were salary, work conditions, company policies,
achievement, growth and recognition. Looking at Herzbergs list of satisfiers and
dissatisfiers in relation to his theory I can now understand the direction in which the company
took in trying to solve the issues and it did not work. The company eventually dealt with the
salaries by giving each person an increase, needless to say, today, workers are still not
satisfied. This however, proves Herzbergs theory the opposite of dissatisfaction is not
satisfaction since the workers are still dissatisfied. The same theory applies to advancement
which is a satisfier, the company gave each person a promotion which was a further increase
in salary and reflected growth but the employees are still not satisfied, since all the
companys action was just a way to keep the employees dormant.
Herzbergs concept of modern ethical management and social responsibility would
have lead the company to better communication and dialog with the workers, understanding
how to best deal with the issues to keeping job satisfiers satisfied and dissatisfiers not
dissatisfied.
Adams Equity Theory states that people seek to maintain a balance between their
inputs and the outcomes they receive, also in relation to the outputs of others. Fair treatment
creates motivation. It adds a crucial additional perspective to motivation theory, of
comparison with referent others (people we consider to be in a similar situation). (Ball
online) With reference to the industrial action aforementioned, one of the reasons why
employees were still not satisfied with the promotions is that some of the persons who
became a level two instructor were not as qualified or had not been in the company for as
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long as others that were also upgraded to a level. It was not seen by some as equity, thus still
having dissatisfied employees.
Vrooms theory separates effort from performance and outcomes. It works on
perceptions, and assumes that behaviour is the result of conscious choices among alternatives
aimed at maximizing pleasuring and avoiding pain. He introduces the concepts of Expectancy
(increased effort will lead to increased results), Instrumentality (if you perform well you will
receive a valued outcome) and Valence (value placed on the expected outcome). Again the
company did not take this into consideration, for example; it was promised that those who did
put down tools would be rewarded for their commitment to the company, yet, those are the
same persons who are waiting for the reward after almost three (3) years.
Hackman and Oldhams job characteristics model the job characteristics model
focuses on the task itself. It identifies five core job characteristics (Skill variety, Task
identity, Task significance, Autonomy, Feedback) that influence three critical psychological
states (Meaningfulness, Responsibility, Knowledge of outcomes). These, in turn, influence
motivation and work outcomes (job satisfaction, absenteeism). The theory goes on to
suggest one can design the key components of a job for maximum motivation.
My interpretation of this within the company suggests that there are some things that
can be done differently, or be improved, such as employee evaluation and appraisal forms.
The company has all the necessary documentation but there is no accountability or action
taken when they are done. For example; an employee is late by forty-five minutes each day
for work, as the supervisor you speak to the employee, when things do not change you write
to the manager but nothing gets done, because the supervisor do not have the autonomy to
write directly to the employee leaving a paper trail, leaving employee with the notion that
being late is acceptable behaviour and the supervisor biting nail trying to work around it.
According to need theories, motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort
toward organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts ability to satisfy some individual
need. A need in this context is an internal state that makes certain outcomes appears
attractive. An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the individual.
These drives then generate a search behaviour to find particular goals that, if attained, will
satisfy the need and lead to the reduction of the tension. Needs are physiological or
psychological deficiencies that arouse behaviour. These vary over time and place, as the can
be strong or weak and influenced by environmental factors. (Benjamin Balls online)
With this being said, the employees who are anticipating a reward for commitment to
the company have started exerting negative behaviours and is no longer satisfied with the job
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itself. A supervisor must be able to modify the behaviour of his or her staff and with the
knowledge of the motivation theory he or she would be able to achieve this goal since this
knowledge would change his or her perspective on situation and how they deal with it. In my
opinion the job itself (the tasks) are not as merely important as have your staff willing to go
the distance to attaining your companys goals. With the new ethical management strategies
hard work must be rewarded and amongst employees, equity is a huge motivation. Feedback,
autonomy, good working conditions and a supervisor who works well with others, can all be
good motivators both intrinsically and extrinsically.
A supervisor with the knowledge of motivation can keep his or her staff motivated
and committed by having the staff being part of the decision making process. Ousterhout,
(2014). An assertive supervisor knows when to use the required style and relevant
knowledge of leadership when communicating with his or her subordinates. An open door
policy being able to empathize, criticize in private, openly acknowledge workers are some of
the attributes that help motivate staff.
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Reference

Eyre, E. & the Mind Tools Team (2007). Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors. Learn
how to Motivate Your Team. Retrieved from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/herzberg-motivators-hygiene-factors.htm on
August 14th, 2015

Lynn Lehman, B, (2007) M.Ed. Director of Program Development Solution Focus Areas:
Leadership / Supervision. Rising Sun Consultants retrieved from
http://www.risingsunconsultants.com/images/white_papers/PDFs/SupervisorOrManang
er.pdf on August 14th, 2015

Ousterhout, J. (2014) Open decision making. Retrieved from

http://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/decisions.php on August 11th, 2015